Clinical Center healthcare workers' self-reported occupational parenteral and nonparenteral exposures to blood and other body substances were studied for a 12 month period prior to Clinical Center implementation of the final Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) bloodborne pathogen standard. These data have been used: 1) to establish current levels of exposures in the Clinical Center, 2) to compare these levels of exposure with similar data obtained in previously published data, and 3) to establish a baseline to compare results from a subsequent survey conducted after staff have been trained according to the OSHA standard. During July 1992, selected populations of healthcare workers in the Clinical Center were invited to participate in the study. More than half of the invited participants elected to enroll. The questionnaire requested information on demographics, hepatitis B vaccination status, Universal Precautions training, and the occurrence of parenteral, mucous membrane, and cutaneous exposures to blood and other body substances. These data show that most participants with occupational risk for contact with human blood or other body substances reported completion of Universal Precautions training. Study respondents reported exposure rates to blood and to all body substances, which, in comparison to previously published data collected prior to and a year following Universal Precautions training, demonstrate a continued significant decline in occupational exposures. This work is still in progress. A second survey will be mailed to participants following completion of staff training according to the OSHA standard.
