Washington’s Division of Occupational safety and Health (DOSH) fined Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane $8,000 for failing to follow state and national H1N1 flu safety standards.

The Washington State Nurses Association filed a complaint against Sacred Heart. Nurses at the hospital were reporting difficulty in accessing properly fit-tested N-95 masks when treating patients with H1N1 flu.

Specific violations include:

• inadequate written respiratory protection program
• not all employees who wear N-95 respirators were fit tested or trained on an annual basis, and
• no provisions were made for men with facial hair, which can interfere with the seal of N-95 respirators.

EPA has issued a warning: Several vendors are making claims that aren’t true.

What is true: Disinfectants used on hard surfaces according to label instructions are effective against type-A flu viruses, including this year’s H1N1 strain. Approved products specifically have label information which states they provide effectiveness against “Influenza A viruses”

However, there are no products registered by EPA that will disinfect or sterilize the air or a room by fogging. Claims for disinfecting carpets, drapes and other porous surfaces are also false.

For more information from EPA on flu disinfectant products, click here.

The agency also reports that 22 million swine flu cases occurred during the same period.

In an average flu season, flu contributes to the deaths of about 36,000 people, with 90% age 65 or older. Many of them have other underlying health conditions.

That’s not been the case with H1N1. The vast majority of deaths have been in people age 18 to 64, and about 25% of them were healthy before contracting the virus.

Of the 4,000 total deaths, about 540 have been children age 17 and under.

Key message: We’ve got at least four more months to go in the flu season this year. H1N1 has just started to show the impact it can have. Employees still have to heed warnings to wash their hands frequently and stay out of work if they have flu symptoms and a fever.

A survey shows 91% of Americans said they want their co-workers to remain at home if they’re infected with H1N1.

And those workers have support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency recommends people with flu stay home until their temperature drops below 100°F without pain relievers for 24 hours to reduce its spread.

Other findings from the Mansfield Communications survey of 2,029 Americans:

• 69% of workers said they’d received no communication about policies in the workplace pertaining to H1N1
• 84% believe the recession creates more pressure to show up for work, even if they feel sick
• 47% said they’d still engage in public activities (riding the bus, picking up a prescription or grocery shopping) even when they were infected with H1N1 and required to stay home from work, and
• 84% were likely to report a colleague who had flu symptoms.

Recently, SafetyNewsAlert.com asked our readers how prepared they were for a swine flu outbreak:

• 52% somewhat prepared
• 29% not at all prepared
• 17% well prepared, and
• 2% don’t think swine flu will affect their company.

So if you’re like many businesses playing catch-up when it comes to flu preparedness, the federal government has a Web page with suggestions.

Now, we’d like to hear from you. What should a company’s policy be about workers who have the flu? Should they be required to stay home? What happens when so many workers are sick that it affects productivity? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Employees across the country have a message for their co-workers during this H1N1 flu season: Don’t come in if you’re sick.

A survey shows 91% of Americans said they want their co-workers to remain at home if they’re infected with H1N1.

And those workers have support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency recommends people with flu stay home until their temperature drops below 100°F without pain relievers for 24 hours to reduce its spread.

Other findings from the Mansfield Communications survey of 2,029 Americans:

• 69% of workers said they’d received no communication about policies in the workplace pertaining to H1N1
• 84% believe the recession creates more pressure to show up for work, even if they feel sick
• 47% said they’d still engage in public activities (riding the bus, picking up a prescription or grocery shopping) even when they were infected with H1N1 and required to stay home from work, and
• 84% were likely to report a colleague who had flu symptoms.

Recently, SafetyNewsAlert.com asked our readers how prepared they were for a swine flu outbreak:

• 52% somewhat prepared
• 29% not at all prepared
• 17% well prepared, and
• 2% don’t think swine flu will affect their company.

So if you’re like many businesses playing catch-up when it comes to flu preparedness, the federal government has a Web page with suggestions.

Now, we’d like to hear from you. What should a company’s policy be about workers who have the flu? Should they be required to stay home? What happens when so many workers are sick that it affects productivity? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The medical community appears to be split on this.

Hand washing does help stop the spread of the common cold, many respiratory infections and viruses that cause diarrhea.

But in a Newsweek article, Arthur Reingold, head of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, says there’s virtually no evidence that people can catch the flu virus via physical contact. He says people are more likely to catch the flu from breathing in microscopic particles exhaled by infected people.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, notes that some animal studies confirm flu is transmitted through the air and not by physical contact.

Among those still promoting hand washing is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Anne Schuchat. She supports hand washing because it protects against respiratory and intestinal diseases in general – and H1N1 does cause respiratory and intestinal problems.

What’s the take-home for businesses? First, hand-washing is effective in preventing some illnesses, so there’s no reason not to promote it.

Second, this points to the importance of sending sick employees home, and telling them to stay there until they’re well.

Third, the best step people can take starting next month is to get the H1N1 flu shot, when it becomes available.

The guidance comes in two parts: one if flu severity is no worse than it was this spring and one if it gets significantly worse.

The recommendations if severity is similar to spring/summer 2009:

• Sick persons should stay home. The CDC recommends that employees with flu-like symptoms remain at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° or higher), without the use of fever-reducing medication.
• Sick employees at work should be told to go home immediately. Then, they should follow the above guidance about when to return to work.
• Cover coughs and sneezes. Best practice: sneezing and coughing into your sleeve instead of your hands.
• Improve hand hygiene. Instruct employees to wash their hands often with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand cleaner, especially after coughing or sneezing.
• Clean surfaces and items that are more likely to have frequent hand contact. These include workstations, countertops and doorknobs.
• Encourage employees to get vaccinated. This includes vaccination against seasonal and swine flu. Another option: Contract with a local medical provider to give flu shots at your facility.
• Protect employees who are at higher risk for complications from flu. People at higher risk include pregnant women; those with chronic lung disease (such as asthma), heart disease, diabetes, diseases that suppress the immune system and other chronic medical conditions.
• Prepare for an increase in employee absences due to their own illness or sick family members they have to care for. Decide which functions are essential to your business so those workers who are still present can carry those out.

Recommendations for conditions with increased severity compared to spring/summer 2009:

• Consider screening employees who report to work. Send workers home who have fever or chills and cough or sore throat. Don’t require a doctor’s note from employees who take time off due to flu symptoms.
• Plan alternative work arrangements for employees at higher risk for complications from flu (see list above). This could include telecommuting.
• Consider increased social distancing at work. Goal: Workers should be at least 6 feet apart at most times.
• Prepare for school dismissals or closure of child care. This may require workers with children to leave work suddenly.

Links to more information:

• www.flu.gov
• Worker safety and health guidance for a flu pandemic from OSHA
• Resources for healthcare facilities.

Infections continue to climb in the United States, Europe, Australia and South America. And the H1N1 flu is still spreading as the start of summer nears in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear after weather turns warm, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.

On the one hand, the vast majority of infections have been mild. But, of the 141 people who have died from swine flu worldwide, half were young and healthy — people who aren’t usually susceptible to flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports flu is currently widespread in five states: Arizona, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

For more information from the CDC on the flu, click here.

Experts at the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton School believe the official warnings and media coverage was not overblown.

“From a business perspective, the costs of a false negative are so much bigger than the costs of a false positive,” according to Wharton health care management and economics professor David Asch.

In other words, a weak response to a flu outbreak that went on to be much worse would have had serious consequences, possibly taking trillions of dollars from the economy.

Asch suggests a large number of false alarms are necessary to protect public health.

Arthur Caplan, director of Penn’s Center for Bioethics agrees that, if you have a new strain of the flu, “you should be yelling about it.”

“You have to protect your own employees first, and that’s what most companies have been doing,” said Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director of Wharton’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center.

So what about all that news coverage? The Penn and Wharton experts said much of it did provide a public service, such as constant reminders about hand washing and the fact that face masks won’t prevent the spread of flu.

However, Asch is concerned that there could be a backlash. Since, for now, this proved to be a somewhat false alarm, the public may discount the danger of the next epidemic.

The report notes that new flu strains often return with a second wave that can be stronger than the first. That’s what happened with the 1918 pandemic. There was a weak outbreak in the spring of 1918, with most of the deaths occurring in the fall and winter of 1918 into 1919.

The report is available online here.

Do you think the government warnings and/or media coverage were overblown? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

And we’d like to hear whether your company is prepared for pandemic flu. Visit our home page to participate in our poll on swine flu.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) has developed guidelines for businesses to prepare for a pandemic:

Workplace Access and Security

• Restrict and monitor workplace access
• Establish criteria for refusal of access to unfit workers and criteria for return-to-work
• Implement telecommuting capabilities where feasible
• Develop infrastructure to manage meetings by conference call or videoconferencing; when in-person meetings are necessary, keep a separation of at least 6 feet from colleagues and ensure there is adequate ventilation
• Reduce or eliminate noncritical social interactions
• Encourage job rotation or staggered shifts to reduce worker exposure risks related to traveling on public transit during peak times
• Segregate/isolate critical work clusters
• Reduce or eliminate work in low-ventilated areas
• Minimize the use of shared facilities for eating and smoking by staggering meals and breaks or designating multiple sites
• Reduce or eliminate work travel to high-risk regions, and
• Initiate a snow day practice or “reverse quarantine” for nonessential workers.

Production needs

• Identify critical production needs and reduce nonessential production
• Compile priority requirements for key workers with respect to personal protective equipment and training
• Engage management and workers in discussions on safe work practices, and contingencies available for work force, supply chain, and production
• Maintain effective communications between all workplace parties
• Address dispute resolution regarding health and safety/safe work issues, and
• Identify and mitigate unique exposure risks posed by multiple jobs and shifts by part-time or occasional workers.

Communications

• Establish call-in hot-line
• Create up-to-the-minute Web splash page, and
• Launch dedicated “grapevine.”

Germ Control

• Develop a sick leave policy that does not penalize sick employees and encourages them to stay home; recognize that employees with ill family members may need to stay home to care for them
• Provide resources and a work environment that promotes personal hygiene; provide tissues, no-touch trash cans, hand soap, hand sanitizer, disinfectants, and disposable towels for employees to clean their work surfaces)
• Encourage employees to wash hands frequently and avoid touching nose, mouth, and eyes; germs can live for two hours or more on surfaces
• Encourage employees to cover their coughs and sneezes
• Provide employees with up-to-date education and training on flu risk factors, protective behaviors, and instruction on proper behaviors (proper cough etiquette and care of personal protective equipment).
• Keep work surfaces, telephones, computer equipment, and other frequently touched surfaces and office equipment clean
• Discourage employees from using phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment that are not their own
• Promote healthy lifestyles that include plenty of sleep, physical activity, good nutrition, stress management, drinking plenty of fluids, and smoking cessation
• Cover mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough either with a tissue or upper sleeves then clean your hands
• Clean hands often, and when possible, wash with soap and warm water, rub vigorously together and scrub all surfaces for 15 to 20 seconds, and
• When soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers, rubbing hands until dry.

For more information from AIHA, click here.

As health experts raised the threat level of the swine flu to 5, indicating “a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent,” some U.S. businesses are just now beginning to look at ways to prepare for the potential health, social, and economic impact of a flu pandemic.

“Planning for pandemic influenza is critical, and the business community must not delay in considering the impact of a pandemic and to adjust their company’s employee health and safety plans accordingly,” says Lindsey Booher, CIH, CSP, president of the American Industrial Hygiene Association. “Employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their employees, and by following guidelines based on traditional infection control and industrial hygiene practices, employers can play a key role in protecting their employees from influenza and other communicable illnesses.”

During a pandemic flu outbreak, industrial hygienists will have responsibility for both ensuring worker health and safety and maintaining an adequate work force to accommodate changes in workflow and production. As industrial hygienists play a major role in the control of infectious diseases, they already undertake the critical function of educating employers and governments about the effectiveness of industrial hygiene expertise, tools, and processes that will control infectious diseases.

If you do not already have the AIHA-published, “The Role of the Industrial Hygienist in a Pandemic,” now is the time to get this essential reference. Written by the AIHA Biosafety and Environmental Microbiology Committee, the guideline provides resources, information, and tools to advise and assist general workers, health care workers, and management to protect workers in the case of a flu pandemic. This guide identifies hazards, risk groups, and recommended controls; offers a communication plan; describes the impact of a flu pandemic on organizations, and lists key resources to contact for further information.