Tell OSHA: We need strong, science-based national infectious diseases standards!
Nurses urge Acting Secretary Julie Su of the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure that OSHA proposes an Infectious Diseases Standard that requires strong, science-based protections for health care workers and patients. The proposed standard should:
- Follow the best and latest available science on aerosol/inhalation transmission of infectious diseases. This means leaving behind the disproven droplet-airborne dichotomy and implementing the new World Health Organization terminology that recognizes that air/inhalation transmission can occur at both short and long distances from an infectious individual.
- Require health care employers to implement comprehensive exposure control plans to protect health care workers and patients from infectious disease exposures.
- Include robust requirements for health care employers to implement measures to protect health care workers and patients from air/inhalation transmission, including ventilation and air cleaning, source control including screening, isolation, and masks, PPE including the use of NIOSH-approved respirators, exposure surveillance, notification, and follow-up, paid sick leave and medical removal benefits, and access to vaccinations.
- Go beyond CDC guidance because current CDC guidance is outdated and the CDC’s process to update guidance is dominated by management perspectives and is failing to recognize the science on aerosol/inhalation transmission and respiratory protection. OSHA must prioritize the safety of health care workers.
Sign the Petition
Health care employers are failing to protect nurses, other health care workers, and patients from infectious disease hazards. As a result, nearly seven in ten nurses have contracted at least one infectious disease at work, NNU’s 2024 Infectious Diseases Survey found.
Weak CDC guidance, which is outdated, facilitates health care employers’ prioritization of profits over protections for patients and health care workers. The CDC’s process to update infection control guidance is dominated by management perspectives and is ignoring important science on aerosol/inhalation transmission and respiratory protection, putting health care workers at higher risk of infection, illness, death, and other health impacts.
Enforceable standards are needed. In California—the only state in the nation with an enforceable Aerosol Transmissible Diseases Standard—nurses report higher utilization of protective measures and lower rates of work-related infections.
Federal OSHA is developing a national infectious diseases standard that would protect health care workers in every state, and we need to make sure it follows the most up-to-date science.
Take action today and sign the petition to advocate for strong, science-based national infectious diseases standards for health care workers and patients!