Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 61 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the director of health, in conjunction with a special advisory committee, to propose administrative rules to minimize the risk of needlestick injuries to health care workers.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Nurses' Association. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Hawaii Government Employees Association supported this measure with certain amendments. The Governor's Committee on HIV/AIDS and Kaiser Permanente support the concept of prevention but not as drafted, and the Department of Health submitted comments. Aventis Pharmaceutical and AstraZeneca submitted comments to assist with recommended amendments subsequent to the hearing.

Your Committee finds that there is an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 needlestick injuries per year involving health care workers. The measure, as received, requires the Department of Health to maintain a list of existing needleless systems and sharps injuries protections. However, because technology in this area is constantly changing, your Committee finds that this requirement is practicably impossible as well as unnecessary. Your Committee therefore finds that a better solution would be to expand the list of information required for the federally mandated sharps injury log thereby increasing understanding among employers and employees about the hazards of needles in health care settings.

Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing the language in sections 2 and 3 of the bill as received with language that requires Hawaii employers to provide additional information in the sharps injury log. Your Committee further amended this measure by providing a three year exemption for pre-filled syringes that are approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 61, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 61, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing.