Posted on the Bulletin Board
From: Health & Safety Department To: All Employees Re: H1N1 Precautions Date: November 27, 2009
Last Updated: November 5, 2009
As new information about the 2009 H1N1 virus becomes available, this workplace guidance will be reevaluated and updated. Employers and workers should review OSHA's Workplace Safety and H1N1 often to ensure they have the most up-to-date information when making decisions about their current operations and planning.
Right now, the 2009 H1N1 virus is not causing severe disease in most people. If you do not have contact with patients that have or may have 2009 H1N1, specimens from these patients, or contaminated material in a healthcare, home healthcare, or clinical laboratory setting, the best way to reduce your risk of exposure is to use basic hygiene precautions and avoid close contact with ill people. Because flu viruses can change, the 2009 H1N1 virus may cause more severe disease at some point in the future. For this reason, you and your employer need to plan to use additional workplace precautions, like social distancing (avoiding crowds, teleworking, etc.), if disease severity increases. See HHS/CDC’s 2009 H1N1 website for up-to-date information about the 2009 H1N1 flu in your area.
What to Do Now Stay at home if you are sick. The HHS/CDC recommends that workers who have a fever or chills and a cough or sore throat to stay at home until 24 hours after their fever ends (defined as 100 degrees Fahrenheit [37.8 degrees Celsius]), without the use of medication. Not everyone who has 2009 H1N1 flu will have a fever. Other symptoms could include a runny nose, body aches, headache, tiredness, diarrhea, or vomiting.
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds; use an alcohol-based hand rub if soap and water are not available.
Avoid touching your nose, mouth and eyes.
Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue, or cough and sneeze into your upper sleeve. Throw tissues into a "no-touch" wastebasket.
Clean your hands after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose.
When using soap and water, rub soapy hands together for at least 20 seconds, rinse hands with water, and dry completely.
If soap and water are not available, use of an alcohol-based hand rub may be helpful as an interim measure until hand washing is possible. When using an alcohol-based hand rub, apply liquid to palm of hand, cover all surfaces of the hands with the liquid, and rub hands together until dry
Keep frequently touched common surfaces (for example, telephones, computer equipment, etc.) clean.
Try not to use a coworker's phone, desk, office, computer, or other work tools and equipment. If you must use a coworker’s equipment, consider cleaning it first with a disinfectant.
Stay in shape. Eat a healthy diet. Get plenty of rest, exercise and relaxation.
Speak with your doctor and find out if you are in a high risk category for 2009 H1N1 flu (e.g., pregnant women, persons with asthma, etc.).
Get vaccinated for both the seasonal and the 2009 H1N1 flu if you are in one of the groups recommended for vaccination. For additional information about seasonal flu vaccine priorities, see Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine. For information about 2009 H1N1 vaccine priorities, see 2009 H1N1 Vaccination Recommendations.
Participate in any training offered by your employer. Make sure that you understand how to stay healthy at work.
Plan for "Social Distancing" and Other Controls if the Severity Increases If the severity of 2009 H1N1 increases, your employer should be planning to use other control measures to reduce close contact among coworkers and with others in the workplace. Not all of the following options can be used in every workplace or for every job task. The controls that your employer uses will depend on how the workplace is set up and what the job task involves. Workplace controls that you employer should be considering include the following:
Installing sneeze guards, and plexiglas or other barriers between you, coworkers, clients and the general public.
Setting up work and service areas to increase the distance between you, coworkers and clients.
Using the Internet, phone and drive-thru windows more for customer service.
Avoiding close contact (within 6 feet) with coworkers and clients.
Minimizing face–to–face meetings; using virtual/remote meetings, emails, phones and text messaging. If meetings are unavoidable, minimizing close contact (within 6 feet) with others.
Limiting visitors to minimize contact between workers and the general public.
Discouraging hand shaking.
Be ready for school and daycare closures; make backup child care plans.
For more information, see OSHA’s Quick Card on How to Protect Yourself in the Workplace during a Pandemic and HHS/CDC’s Guidance for Business and Employers to Plan and Respond to the 2009-2010 Influenza Season.
This guidance is advisory in nature and informational in content. It is not a standard or regulation, and it neither creates new legal obligations nor alters existing obligations created by OSHA standards or the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Pursuant to the OSH Act, employers must comply with safety and health standards and regulations issued and enforced either by OSHA or by an OSHA-approved State Plan. In addition, the Act’s General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), requires employers to provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm.