On behalf of healthcare workers across the nation and beyond, the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP) has released its 2015-2017 Public Policy Statement, which specifically targets health and safety concerns in healthcare.

Use of the same syringe or needle to give injections to more than one person is driving the spread of a number of deadly infectious diseases worldwide. Millions of people could be protected from infections acquired through unsafe injections if all healthcare programs switched to syringes that cannot be used more than once.

Correctional officers and other staff at McDowell medium-security federal prison in Welch, West Virginia were potentially exposed to bloodborne pathogens and other workplace safety and health hazards, according to OSHA, which has issued notices to the Federal Correctional Institution at McDowell, a part of the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Workers at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Oregon were potentially exposed to infectious diseases and sharps injuries, according to OSHA inspections conducted at the facility in April as part of a Local Emphasis Program. The agency has issued a notice of unsafe and unhealthful working conditions for 17 violations found at the VA's White City Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics facility.

A company president heads to federal prison for occupational safety crimes, sharps injuries among health care workers benchmarked and an asbestos claim transparency victim that has victims’ rights advocates calling “foul” are among this week’s top EHS-related stories as featured on ISHN.com:

A new survey estimates that 320,000 U.S. health care workers sustain sharps injuries (SI) in hospital and non-hospital settings. The survey by the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP) found an SI rate of 24 per 100 occupied beds, or 1.9 per 100 full-time equivalents (FTE.)

OSHA has cited a Long Island health care facility for exposing its workers to bloodborne pathogens from a variety of sources. The Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation & Health Care Center Inc. in Smithtown earned 11 serious violations of workplace health and safety standards, with $41,000 in proposed penalties, following an inspection that was prompted by a complaint.