Unions want safety needles in Ontario health facilities.

Three unions representing about 130,000 Ontario health care workers have given their support to a bill in the Ontario legislature to make the use of safety-engineered "sharps" mandatory in the province's health-care facilities where workers are exposed to blood-borne pathogens.

The introduced bill, by NDP opposition member Shelley Martel, has passed the First and Second reading in the legislature. The unions want assurance that the bill will come to a third and final reading in the current session.

The unions involved in this campaign are the Ontario Nurses' Association, Service Employees International Union Canada, and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. They say this would prevent 33,000 injuries a year in Ontario.

The unions report:

* the annual cost of testing and treating needlestick injuries in Ontario's health care is $64 million;

* in jurisdictions where the use of safety needles are mandated by law, 83 per cent of sharps injuries are prevented;

* about $4 million would be saved yearly in Ontario by eliminating unsafe medical sharps.

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