Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his legislation aimed at providing safer hypodermic needles for health care workers "is still stuck" in Congress.
It appears the old-fashioned politicking of one Kentucky company has halted the bill.
The legislation, sponsored by Reid and four other senators, requires health care providers to use new innovations such as syringes that automatically cover needle tips after use and hypodermics with retractable needles.
The bill seems popular in Congress. The House passed it Oct. 3.
And the Occupational Safety and Health Administration backs the legislation. Officials say each year 800,000 nurses and other health care workers are accidentally stuck by contaminated needles, which can transmit diseases.
But one lawmaker, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., put a hold on the bill, blocking a Senate vote because a company in his state doesn't like the way it is worded.
Lexington-based MedPro Inc. manufactures an $895 needle disposal device called the Needlyzer. The shoe-box sized machine, marketed to hospitals, clinics and prisons, can disintegrate a traditional steel needle to metal ash in one second with a 2,900-degree Fahrenheit electric blast. The device, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, has a replaceable cartridge that can hold 3,000 to 5,000 disintegrated needles.
MedPro officials said the Needlyzer prevents needle sticks by eliminating the danger of trashed needles in a waste container.
MedPro for two years has lobbied Congress to not draft a bill that merely advocates safer needles and excludes needle disposal devices, a company spokesman said.
"There is not a magic bullet in sharps safety," MedPro vice president and chief operating officer Walter Weller said. "We believe there is a whole mosaic of solutions."
The company has Bunning's ear.
"We are deeply grateful to the senator for his effort," a MedPro press release said.
Bunning's spokesman was unavailable for comment Wednesday and today.
Reid said he planned to speak to Bunning and urge him to support the legislation as worded.
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