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Re: Bloodborne Pathogen Standar




At 03:42 PM 5/1/96 -0500, you wrote:
>                      Subject:                              Time:  4:20 PM
>  OFFICE MEMO         Bloodborne Pathogen Standards vs....    Date:  01/05/96
>
>I recommended to one of my clients that uses approximately 250 uCi of P-32 as a
>DNA probe, that they should setup a simple in-house urinalysis bioassay
program,
>using their LSC, as part of their routine Health Physics procedures.  
>
........................................
I asked one of our IH people for advice.  We perform urine bioassays at GU.

He found the following:

All of this is straight out of the OSHA preamble to 1910.1030.
Contradicting what I wrote earlier.  I should have said "no peer
reveiewed.....accepted cases of transmission through urine..

 (Ex. 6-445). Other body fluids such as urine
or feces contain only small quantities of (HBV) virus unless they are visibly
contaminated with blood.

HIV has been isolated from human blood, semen, breast milk, vaginal
secretions, saliva, tears, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and amniotic fluid;
however, epidemiologic evidence implicates only blood, semen, vaginal
secretions and breast milk in the transmission of the virus (Ex. 6-317).

Leptospirosis:  Leptospirosis, a prolonged illness characterized by fever,
rash, and occasionally jaundice, is caused by strains of Leptospira
interrogans, a spirochete. The septicemic phase, during which leptospira are
present in the bloodstream of patients, usually resolves within 1-2 weeks.
It is typically acquired by contact with urine of infected animals,
including cattle, swine, dogs, and rats; 43 cases were reported in 1987 (Ex.
6-465). No cases of nosocomial transmission by blood have been reported.

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Sim Shanks, RSO		        		shankss@odrge.odr.georgetown.edu
Georgetown University					(202) 687-4712
Office of Environmental Health and Safety	fax 	(202) 687-5046
3900 Reservoir Road,  N.W.
Washington DC  20007