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home to determine what personal protective equipment is needed (as mentioned above).170 A personal protective equipment hazard assessment of the workplace should be conducted and then documented in writing. Where the use of personal protective equipment is required, the employees who must wear the personal protective equipment must be trained.171 The training for employees should include when the personal protective equipment is necessary, what personal protective equipment is necessary, how to properly put on and take off, adjust, and wear the personal protective equipment, limitations of the personal protective equipment, and the proper care, maintenance, useful life and disposal of the personal protective equipment.172 Wear gloves that are designed for protection against the hazards found in the embalming room.173 For gloves, nitrile or butyl gloves are recommended for exposure to formaldehyde-containing solutions and blood or other potentially infectious materials. Check with glove manufactures to ensure they offer proper protection against formaldehyde and blood exposures. For jobs that have a high risk of cut or puncture injuries, gloves with an interposed layer of cut-proof synthetic mesh should be strongly considered.174 Wear eye protection that is appropriate for hazards in the embalming room.175 Funeral homes must provide eye protection that is appropriate to the tasks being conducted and to the chemicals being used. Finally, funeral homes must provide an emergency eyewash and shower in the embalming room.176 The location should be no more than 10 seconds travel time from the anticipated exposure points. As a rule of thumb, 100 feet can be traveled in 10 seconds if there are no obstacles.177 The eyewash and shower can be used for both bloodborne pathogens emergencies and chemical emergencies. Conclusion All of the risk control methods established by OSHA are in place for a reason: to protect the employee. The bottom line, though, is that EVERY funeral service professional must be aware of both hazards and protections in order to give themselves the lowest risk of being exposed to a communicable disease. Protect yourself. No one else can if you do not. 162-164 Mayer, 54 165-169 Mayer, 55 170-171 OSHA Personal Protective Equipment Standard 172 OSHA Compliance Guidance for Funeral Homes, 17 173 OSHA Personal Protective Equipment Standard 174 OSHA Compliance Guidance for Funeral Homes, 17 175-176 OSHA Personal Protective Equipment Standard 177 OSHA Compliance Guidance for Funeral Homes, 17 COMMUNICABLE DISEASE AND FUNERAL PROFESSIONALS Funeral Service Academy | In May 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) discovered that one of its laboratories inadvertently sent live Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, to almost 200 laboratories worldwide over the course of 12 years. The laboratory believed that the samples had been inactivated, that is, the hazardous effects of the pathogen had been destroyed while retaining characteristics of interest for future use.1 In this case, DOD was inactivating samples to support research on the detection, identification, and characterization of biological threats. Similar incidents have occurred in other countries, including China, where two researchers conducting virus research were exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus samples that were incompletely inactivated. The researchers subsequently transmitted SARS to others, leading to several infections and one death in 2004.2 Researchers in high-containment laboratories may inactivate pathogens for a variety of reasons, such as to develop vaccines or to perform diagnostic testing or other research in a 1 For the purpose of this report, we focused on inactivation as a process used in laboratories to render pathogens unable to cause disease but retain characteristics of interest for future use, such as for vaccine development. 2 W. Liang, T. Zhao, Z. Liu, B. Guan, X. He, M. Liu, Q. Chen, G. Liu, J. Wu, R. Huang, X. Xie, and Z. Wu, “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Retrospect and Lessons of 2004 Outbreak in China,” Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, 19, (2006): 445-451. Letter Page 2 GAO-16-642 Inactivation of Pathogens lower safety-level laboratory. Several incidents involving incomplete inactivation have occurred in the United States in recent years, potentially exposing people to dangerous pathogens that can cause infectious diseases.3 Federal agencies, universities, private companies, and others operate high-containment laboratories to conduct research on dangerous pathogens, including developing measures to protect public and animal health.4 Research is conducted on a variety of pathogens in highcontainment laboratories, including pathogens classified as select agents. Select agents include specific pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to human, animal, or plant health and safety, or to animal or plant products. 5 The Federal Select Agent Program (Select Agent Program) regulates the possession, use, and transfer of select agents and is comprised of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Select Agents and Toxins and the United States Department
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