Subject: Court Says Health-Care Safety Rules Valid
Date: Published: 2/2/93 (57 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Law -- Legal Beat:
    Health-Care Safety Rules
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    By Amy Stevens
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

[138 lines irrelevant to AIDS omitted. -- sysop]

    Health-Care Safety Rules
    New workplace-safety rules designed to protect health-care
 employees from hepatitis B and AIDS are valid, a federal appeals
 court ruled.
    The appeals court in Chicago rebuffed a challenge by the American
 Dental Association, which argued that it was unfair to apply the
 rules to all health-care workers when some are more likely to be
 exposed to disease than others.  The court agreed that the rules,
 implemented by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
 last year, might be costly and unneeded in some circumstances, but
 nonetheless are valid.
    The rules include standards for protective clothing and workplace
 cleanliness, and they require employers to give free, confidential
 tests for the human immunodeficiency virus that causes acquired
 immune deficiency syndrome, to workers exposed to infection.  OSHA
 estimated that the changes will cost the health-care industry $813
 million, but industry representatives and the appeals court
 suggested the cost is even greater.
    The Seventh U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the dental
 association and others opposing the rule had not shown that the
 benefits were outweighed by the costs.  The appeals court panel did
 throw out part of the rules dealing with home health-care providers
 because the regulations were too vague.
    In a dissent to most of the panel's decision, Judge John L. 
 Coffey questioned whether OSHA, rather than government health
 agencies, should be regulating health care.  The judge also called
 the rules unnecessary:  "I am forced to assume that because of the
 excessive media coverage regarding the AIDS virus, fueled by one
 single episode involving Kimberly Bergalis in Florida contracting
 AIDS from her dentist, OSHA decided to promulgate this
 over-expansive rule."
    Kathleen M. Todd, associate general counsel for the American
 Dental Association, Chicago, said the group is considering seeking a
 rehearing or a Supreme Court review.  Meanwhile, the group is asking
 Congress to revise the regulations.
    (American Dental Association and Home Health Services and
 Staffing Association Inc. vs. Lynn Martin et al., Seventh U. S. 
 Circuit Court of Appeals, Chicago, 91-3865)
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    Jundo Woo contributed to this article.

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