Labor & Industries (L&I), Washington State

Bloodborne Pathogens Chapter 296-823, WAC

Effective Date: 09/01/04

 

WAC 296-823-150 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

For printing

Your Responsibility:

To provide and make sure personal protective equipment is used when work practices and controls won't fully protect your employees from the risk of exposure to blood or other potentially infectious materials

You must

Provide and make sure that personal protective equipment is used when there is occupational exposure WAC 296-823-15005 Make sure gloves are worn WAC 296-823-15010 Make sure masks, eye protection, and face shields are worn WAC 296-823-15015 Wear appropriate protective clothing WAC 296-823-15020 Make resuscitator devices available WAC 296-823-15025 Maintain personal protective equipment WAC 296-823-15030

 

WAC 296-823-15005

Provide and make sure personal protective equipment is used when there is occupational exposure

You must

• Provide at no cost to employees, appropriate personal protective equipment such as:
• – Gloves
• – Gowns
• – Laboratory coats
• – Face shields or a combination of masks and eye protection
• – Mouthpieces
• – Resuscitation bags
• – Pocket masks
• – Other ventilation devices.

Note: PPE is considered "appropriate" only if it does not permit blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) to pass through to or reach the employee's work clothes, street clothes, undergarments, skin, eyes, mouth, or other mucous membranes under normal conditions of use and for the duration of time which the protective equipment will be used.

You must

• Make sure that employees use appropriate PPE.
• – In rare and extraordinary circumstances, employees can briefly and temporarily choose not to use PPE if, in their professional judgment, they believe that using PPE would prevent the delivery of health care or public safety services or pose an increased hazard to themselves or coworkers.
• If the employee makes this judgment, you must investigate and document to determine if changes can be made to prevent future occurrences of the same situation
• Make sure that appropriate PPE, in sizes to fit your employees, is readily accessible at the worksite or issued to employees
• Make sure employees remove all PPE before leaving the work area.

WAC 296-823-15010

Make sure gloves are worn

You must

• Make sure gloves appropriate to the situation are worn when:
• – It can be reasonably anticipated that the employee may have hand contact with blood, other potentially infectious materials (OPIM), mucous membranes, or skin that isn't intact
• – Handling or touching contaminated items or surfaces
• – Performing vascular access procedures, for example, drawing blood or inserting an IV.

You must

• Do the following when you are an employer in a volunteer blood donation center and you make the judgment that employees don't require routine use of gloves when performing phlebotomies:
• – Periodically reevaluate your decision not to require gloves
• – Make gloves available to all employees who wish to use them for phlebotomy (blood drawing)
• – Don't discourage the use of gloves for phlebotomy
• – Require that gloves be used for phlebotomy in any of the following circumstances:
• When the employee has a cut, scratch, or other break in the skin of his or her hand or wrist
• When the employee judges that hand contamination with blood may occur; for example, when performing phlebotomy on an uncooperative individual
• When the employee is receiving training in phlebotomy.

You must

• Make sure employees who are allergic to the gloves that are normally provided have ready access to at least one of the following:

• – Nonlatex gloves
• – Glove liners
• – Powderless gloves
• – Other similar alternatives.
• Replace disposable (single use) gloves such as surgical or examination gloves:

• – As soon as practical when contaminated
• – As soon as practical if they are torn or punctured
• – When their ability to function as a barrier is compromised.

• Make sure disposable (single use) gloves are used only once
• Discard utility gloves if they are cracked, peeling, torn, punctured, or show other signs of deterioration or when their ability to unction as a barrier is compromised.

  – You may decontaminate utility gloves for reuse if they can continue to function as a barrier.

WAC 296-823-15015

Make sure appropriate masks, eye protection, and face shields are worn

You must

• Make sure either chin-length face shields or a combination of masks and eye protection are used, whenever splashes, spray, spatter, or droplets of blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) may be generated and eyes, nose, or mouth contamination can be reasonably anticipated.
  

Note: Examples of eye protection devices include goggles and glasses with solid shields

WAC 296-823-15020

Wear appropriate protective clothing

You must

• Make sure appropriate protective clothing is worn when splashes to skin or clothes are reasonably anticipated. The type and characteristics will depend upon the sort of work being done and how much exposure is anticipated.

Note: Examples of protective clothing include: – Gowns – Aprons – Lab coats – Clinic jackets – Similar outer garments – Surgical caps or hoods – Shoe covers or boots.

You must

• Remove a garment as soon as feasible if blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) penetrate it.

WAC 296-823-15025

Make resuscitator devices available

You must

• Make resuscitator (emergency ventilation) devices readily available and accessible to employees who can reasonably be expected to perform resuscitation procedures.

Note: Examples of resuscitator devices include: – Masks – Mouthpieces – Resuscitation bags – Shields/overlay barriers.

WAC 296-823-15030

Maintain personal protective equipment

You must

• Clean, repair, replace, launder, and dispose of personal protective equipment required by this chapter, at no cost to the employee
• Make sure when PPE is removed, it is placed in an appropriately designated area or container for storage, washing, decontamination, or disposal.

Note: Contaminated personal clothing is considered PPE for the purposes of this section.