Health and Safety Training Manual: Section 3 – Occupational Health
Introduction
Exposure to bloodborne pathogens may be encountered in teaching and research activities and the functions that support these activities. Recognizing that the risk of infection from exposure to bloodborne pathogens is real and to ensure the protection of students and staff, the following program and procedures are to be adopted and followed by all departments.
This Exposure Control Plan is intended to bring Oregon State University into compliance with the OR-OSHA regulations. This plan will serve as the written exposure control plan for OSU. Individual departments will provide supplemental information, as necessary, to act as addenda to this written program.
Classroom and Instructional Use
Students may be exposed to human blood or other potentially infectious material in classrooms, teaching laboratories, or instructional activity such as graduate research. Instructors are required to provide training to their students and to follow the work practices listed in this Exposure Control Plan, including the use of appropriate protective equipment, if the students are going to work with human blood or other potentially infectious material. Instructors must also follow the post-exposure evaluation procedures listed in this chapter if a student reports an exposure incident in a classroom, teaching laboratory, or other instructional activity.
The following exceptions to this Exposure Control Plan will apply to students.
- Annual training will not be required.
- Training records will not be required.
- The cost of required personal protective equipment may be charged to the student.
- Hepatitis B vaccine will not be offered to students unless there is a reasonable expectation that they will experience an exposure incident.
The cost of the hepatitis B vaccine series may be charged to the student.
Review and Approval
Classroom Use
Department Review. The use of human materials in the classroom must be approved. Instructors must submit to their department heads a written explanation of the intended use of a human material in a classroom exercise. This proposal must include the following information.
- Type of material to be used.
- Purpose of the use.
- Description of how the procedures in the Exposure Control Plan will be followed.
The proposal will then be reviewed for approval by the department head. It is recommended that the proposal also be reviewed by the department faculty or the department curriculum committee. This approval is only required once and will apply to all instructors who teach the class and follow the procedures indicated in the proposal. Review and approval will only be required again if the procedures are changed.
When approved by the department head, a copy of the proposal is sent to Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) for review and record maintenance.
Research or Instructional Use
Review and approval by the department head is required for any research or instructional work with HIV or HBV. Extensive safety precautions must be taken when working with these materials. Therefore, any proposal for work with HIV or HBV must also be sent to EH&S for review.
IRB Review. All research work with human blood or other potentially infectious materials must be reviewed and approved by the OSU Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB). Research proposals must be submitted to the Research Office for this review.