OSHA Targets May 2023 for Proposed Infectious Diseases Standard

OSHA recently published its intent to propose an Infectious Diseases (ID) standard. The agency is targeting May of this year (2023) to publish the proposed standard. The new ID standard would include regulatory requirements addressing infectious diseases like tuberculosis and measles, as well as, emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and pandemic influenza. OSHA has stated that this proposed standard would most notably apply to healthcare settings "where employees can be at increased risk of exposure to potentially infectious people". But also stated it may apply to mortuaries and the funeral setting in general. We will be monitoring these developments and will keep our clients abreast of changes to their OSHA compliance programs to accommodate these potential new regulations. However, our existing "Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD)" and "Respiratory Protection" written programs and associated online training modules are expected to comply with many of the anticipated requirements.