OSHA Announces New Website About Protecting Workers in Industries at High Risk of Exposure to Ebola, Including Healthcare

10/17/14 By Dana Szymkowiak
  • The OSHA Website provides information about protecting people who work for airlines, mortuaries, laboratories, customs, emergency response and other vulnerable fields.

  • It also includes guidance for workers tasked with cleaning surfaces that may be contaminated with the Ebola virus, including the type of protective equipment needed (nitrile gloves, fluid resistant gowns and face-shields), and proper disinfectants and waste-removal procedures, as well as guidance and steps to protecting workers during a pandemic.
  • Currently, the only OSHA disease-specific requirements to protect healthcare workers focus on blood-borne pathogens. (Those standards were created in the 1980s in response to fears of HIV and hepatitis.) The agency also has general standards on protective equipment and hazard communication.

To download the OSHA guidance standards please click below.

Cleaning and Decontamination of Ebola on Surfaces

Protecting Workers During a Pandemic