Page 12 - Occupational Health & Safety, April 2017

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Circle 3 on card.
we will not stop until the number of opioid overdose deaths in Wis- consin is down to zero.”
The agency reports there were 1,261,095 opioid prescriptions dispensed in Wisconsin between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2015, the equivalent of 82,874,267 drug doses. The second CSB report shows there was an 11.7 percent reduction in opioid prescriptions and a 13.3 percent reduction in drug doses dispensed in the final quar- ter of 2016 compared with the 2015 quarter, and in comparison to the CSB’s first report released in October, there were 3,142,961 fewer opioid doses dispensed in the fourth quarter of 2016 than in the third quarter of 2016. The report includes information on the number of requests for data made by health care professionals about their patients, reports submitted by law enforcement, data on doctor shopping and pharmacy hopping, and the number of indi- viduals receiving both opioids and benzodiazepine prescriptions.
The Wisconsin PDMP program started in June 2013 and is ad- ministered by DSPS. It stores more than 48 million prescription records submitted by some 2,000 pharmacies and dispensing prac- titioners, with an average of nearly 5,000 queries performed daily.
NIOSH Wants Input on Improving PPE-Info Database
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recently published a notice asking for comments from stakeholders on how PPE-Info, the Personal Protective Equipment Information Data- base, can be improved. Comments, filed electronically or in writing, and had to be received by April 13, 2017. PPE-Info is a collection of national personal protective equipment information. The database allows users to conduct searches of relevant standards, associated product types, target occupational groups, basic conformity as- sessment specifications, and additional pertinent information. It is the only private or public U.S. database that compiles, tracks, and updates comprehensive information about national PPE standards and select product information, according to the notice. The notice lists the questions NIOSH wants to answer:
1. What improvements to the current PPE-Info capabilities are still needed? For example,
a) Should PPE-Info include a list of PPE that conforms to a given standard along with the corresponding level of conformity (e.g., supplier declaration of conformity, accredited third-party declaration of conformity)? If so, what types of PPE would be the most important to include? Provide your rationale, any supporting data or information, including references or sources of technical expert opinion.
b) Should additional selection logic assistance be added, similar to what PPE-Info already does for the hazard of Ebola? If so, which hazards would be most relevant to include and, of those, which have been sufficiently researched to support this logic selection as- sistance? Provide any supporting data or information regarding the research, including references.
2. In addition to the existing content included in PPE-Info, what new content or capabilities could be included to further im- prove health and safety outcomes for U.S. workers? Please provide an explanation for why these improvements are needed, including the affected parties/target audience and the potential impact to the PPE community if these improvements were made. For example, should PPE-Info include international PPE standards? If so, what standards would be the highest priority? Provide your rationale, any supporting data or information, including references or sourc-
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