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Bill 179 SAFE NEEDLES LIVES ACT

CUPE, OPSEU, ONA AND THE OFL have been aggressively campaigning for legislation requiring the mandatory use of Safety-Engineered Devices in Ontario for needlestick prevention.

Local 87 urges our members to support the Brothers and Sisters in pressuring the Justice Committee to support and pass the bill.

Background Information

Over 33, 000 workers employed in the Ontario health care sector alone are accidentally stuck with needles every year. Many more workers employed outside of the health care sector such as firefighters, police officers, corrections workers, parks/municipal workers, transit workers, waste disposal/recycling workers, social services workers, etc., are also at daily risk. Needlestick injuries are also a community health issue - especially for our children finding discarded needles in parks, playgrounds, and school yards.

There are, at least, 33 serious and even fatal diseases that can be accidentally contracted through a needlestick injury injury including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, and West Nile Virus. Workers infured in this way must endure a living nightmare as they undergo testing for six months to a year to determine if they will ultimately test positive for one or more of these horrible, possibly fatal, diseases.

Safety-engineered medical devices (SED's) dramatically reduce these deadly injuries by up to 90%. This is because the safety technology is built into the device - such as safety-engineered needles that automatically retract after use, much the same as a retractable pen. They cost just pennies more per device, but have proven to save lives and millions of health care dollars being spent annually on the testing and treatment of needlestick injuries.

Ontario workers need rithfully deserve comprehensive legislation requiring the mandatory use of safety-engineered medical devices in Ontario workplaces. The NDP governments in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are already enacting similar legislation. Without legislation requiring the mandatory use of SED's, employers will continue to use the cheaper, less-safe conventional devices because current laws allow them to -while Ontario workers needlessly suffer and die from such completely preventable injuries.