Accidental needlestick legislation points direction for syringe market

There is a lot to be learned from history ::: This is when the ball started to roll!

Accidental needlestick legislation points direction for syringe market
Health Industry Today, July, 1999

Anyone interested in catching a medical device groundswell near ground zero should be referred to safety needles and accidental sticks legislation. It's close to critical mass, it's going to get hotter, and it's about to affect the industry from the ground up.

After nearly 20 years of bureaucratic contention, repeated warnings, and as many as one million accidental needle injuries per year, (resulting in thousands of hepatitis C infections and as many as 50 health care workers infected with AIDS annually), safety needles have caught the political eye of legislators.


- In late 1998, California enacted a law that mandates safety needles in every health care facility throughout the state. The law requires full compliance by August 1, 1999. California was the first state to require the stickless syringes.

- In March, 1999, Tennessee passed its own bill mandating safety needles.

- In May, 1999, New Jersey's State Assembly passed a bill requiring mandatory safety needle use by health care facilities by a 77-0 vote.

- Maryland governor Parris Glendening signed into law legislation to enforce the use of safety needles in his state one week after New Jersey passed its legislation.

- In late May, a bill was introduced in Congress mandating the use of safety needles in all U.S. health care facilities. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and Rep. Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) introduced the Health Care Worker Needle Stick Prevention Act of 1999.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Florida, Massachusetts, Montana, Indiana, Illinois and Washington. In all, 20 states have passed, introduced or contemplated needle stick legislation designed to protect health care workers.