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AFSCME Demands Worker Protections for Pandemic InfluenzaThe nation and the world are staring at the very real possibility of a deadly influenza pandemic. Based on a worst case scenario, it is estimated there would be 90 million illnesses, 9.9 million hospitalizations, and 1.9 million deaths in the United States alone. In the event of an outbreak, millions of nurses and other health care workers would be called on to care for the sick. If these workers are expected to be on the front lines when an outbreak occurs, they must have confidence that they will have the equipment and resources they need to protect themselves. In response to the growing threat of an outbreak and the inadequacy of the federal government's preparedness measures, AFSCME petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for an Emergency Temporary Standard for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness to protect health care workers, emergency responders and other essential personnel from occupational exposure to pandemic influenza. The AFL-CIO and four other of its affiliated unions signed on to AFSCME's petition. This petition calls on the Bush administration to include these and other provisions:
Pandemic influenza occurs when a new strain of influenza virus appears, which causes serious illness in humans, and is easily spread from person to person worldwide. Avian influenza, or bird flu, is caused by the H5N1 strain of Influenza A and poses a threat of touching off a global outbreak. As of late April, the World Health Organization has reported 113 deaths among 204 human cases of avian influenza. These people had contact with infected birds and thus far there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. There is no vaccine to protect people at this time. At the beginning of November 2005, the Bush administration released its greatly anticipated and long overdue U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pandemic Influenza Plan. The response strategies included in the administration's plan appropriately include immunizations, medications, surveillance and early detection, and greater international cooperation. However, the program fails miserably in terms of recommending — let alone requiring — measures necessary to protect health care workers and emergency responders. It omits key infection control measures that are required or recommended for other infectious agents. For example, the plan recommends that health care workers wear surgical masks in most situations. However, surgical masks will not protect wearers from airborne exposure to tiny infectious particles for two main reasons. First, unlike respirators, masks are not designed to capture respirable-sized particles. Infectious droplets are expelled through coughing, sneezing and merely talking, and they begin to immediately evaporate and within seconds, or even fractions of seconds, become droplet nuclei. Secondly, surgical masks do not provide a sufficient seal for the wearer's face to prevent significant leakage — and inhalation — of the flu virus. The recommendation to use surgical masks is inconsistent with the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to use, at a minimum, N95 filtering facepiece respirators approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Further, the recommendation for surgical masks also directly contradicts the requirements of OSHA's respiratory protection standard, 1910.134. In addition to requiring respirators certified by NIOSH, the standard encompasses a broad range of measures, including fit testing, training, a written program, medical evaluation, use requirements, maintenance and care, record keeping and program evaluation. AFSCME's petition, along with useful links to information regarding pandemic influenza, can be found at www.afscme.org/health/panflu.htm.
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