Canadian Sharps Safety Regulations

Nova Scotia passed into law the mandatory use of safety-engineered needles in June, 2006. The law requires health-care facilities to provide safety-engineered, hollow-bore needles to workers to ensure they are protected against needle-stick injuries and potential exposure to blood-borne pathogens.

The law applied to hospitals, long-term care homes and emergency services.

Below is an excerpt from the legislation:

Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:

1. This Act may be cited as the Safer Needles in Healthcare Workplaces Act.
2. In this Act,

1. "employee" means a person employed in a healthcare workplace and includes a dependent contractor;
2. "employer" means a person who employs an employee or contracts for the services of an employee and includes a contractor or subcontractor;
3. "healthcare workplace" means
1. a district health authority under the Health Authorities Act,
2. a nursing home, a home for the aged, a residential care facility licensed by the Minister under the Homes for Special Care Act or any other long-term-care facility where the residents are subsidized by the Minister,
3. a place where emergency health services or home care services are provided by or contracted for by the Minister, and
4. any other place prescribed by the regulations;
4. "Minister" means the Minister of Health;
5. "safety-engineered needle" means
   1. a shielded needle device,
   2. a retractable needle system,
   3. a needleless device, or
   4. a needle reduced device,
   that is commercially available and approved as a medical device by Health Canada.

For more information, visit the Government of Nova Scotia Website.