Cal/OSHA Aerosol Transmissible Disease Standard

In some human and animal healthcare facilities and in related settings (for example, in a medical research laboratory), workers are exposed to aerosol transmissible diseases. Cal/OSHA established the Aerosol Transmissible Disease (ATD) Standard (Title 8 CCR Section 5199) to protect workers from infectious diseases that are transmitted by the inhalation of disease particles contained in the air. The ATD standard is divided into parts, as follows:

• Guidelines for human healthcare and research facilities and operations in which workers may be exposed to aerosol transmitted diseases (Title 8 CCR Section 5199).
• Guidelines for animal care, healthcare, and housing operations in which workers may be exposed to zoonotic aerosol transmissible diseases (Title 8 CCR Section 5.199.1). You may recall that zoonotic pathogens are disease organisms that are spread between humans and animals or insects.

In addition to compliance with the ATD standard, employers must comply with all of the provisions of the respiratory protection standard that we discussed a moment ago. There is considerable overlap between the two sets of requirements.

To learn more about Healthcare Respiratory Protection visit our Cal/OSHA Healthcare Respiratory Protection Safety Online Training web page.