Updated sharps, coal dust requirements
EDMONTON — Two new sections have been added to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code.
Although the lion’s share of code revisions came into force on July 1, 2009, the two new sections dealing with medical sharps and updated worker exposure standards for coal dust did not take effect until July, 2010.
Employers in the province are now required to provide and ensure that any medical sharp used is a safety-engineered medical sharp, devices that are specially designed to minimize the risk of workers experiencing needlestick injuries.
Alberta becomes the sixth province in the country to adopt work-related requirements for use of safety-engineered medical sharps.
The new coal dust section, for its part, lowers the eight-hour occupational exposure limit to 0.4 milligrams per cubic metre (mg/m3) for anthracite and 0.9 mg/m3 for bituminous respirable particulate.
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