Bloodborne Pathogen Plan
Bloodborne pathogens are diseases that can be carried in the bodily fluids of a person. Employees can be infected in many different ways within the workplace, such as while performing first aid, cleaning up after an accident, or even cleaning the bathrooms.
Many workplaces assume that bloodborne pathogen regulations don’t pertain to them, because they don’t require employees to serve as first responders, but many tasks beyond first aid can put employees at risk. To know if your employees are at risk of potential exposure to bloodborne pathogens, conduct a full job hazard assessment.
Learn how to conduct a job hazard analysis in this post
If it is identified in your workplace job hazard assessment, then your company may be required to have a bloodborne pathogen policy. A quality workplace policy is not all that is required, check out the forms here.
What is the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens standard?
OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens standard (29 CFR 1910.1030) as amended pursuant to the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act of 2000, prescribes safeguards to protect workers against the health hazards caused by bloodborne pathogens. Its requirements address items such as exposure control plans, universal precautions, engineering and work practice controls, personal protective equipment, housekeeping, laboratories, hepatitis B vaccination, post-exposure follow-up, hazard communication and training, and recordkeeping. The standard places requirements on employers whose workers can be reasonably anticipated to contact blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM), such as unfixed human tissues and certain body fluids – Source
Check Out: Understanding OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard
For more information concerning bloodborne pathogens, OSHA has a published fact sheet, available here.
For your convenience I provide the OSHA bloodborne fact sheet in an easy reader below:
OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Fact Sheet
No policy template is all inclusive for a workplace, so I am providing 2 “boiler plate” programs, along with OSHA 3186 model policy for bloodborne pathogens.
Check Out: How to Persuade Your Staff to Wear Personal Protective Equipment
Download the 2 bloodborne pathogen policies below
Program 1
Program 2
Download and view the OSHA 3186 publication for Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure