According to OSHA’s complaint, an engineer pipe-fitter was exposed to body tissue in March while unclogging a drain at Memphis VA Medical Center. The sink, in a housekeeping closet of the third-floor surgical unit, was full of brown water. As the pipe-fitter cleared the drain, body tissue floated to the top. He collected the tissue in a bucket and placed it outside of a building on the hospital’s campus without a biohazard label, according to OSHA.
The pipe-fitter’s exposure to the body tissue was deemed a “serious” violation by OSHA. According to the complaint, the pipe-fitter had not been provided the hepatitis B vaccine and was not trained in blood borne pathogens.
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