Safety Report: Covid-19 OSHA Complaint, Macomb County Medical Examiners Office, 43585 Elizabeth Rd, MOUNT CLEMENS, MI, 48043, USA

43585 Elizabeth Street, Mount Clemens, 48043 Michigan, United States

1. No employee has been fit tested by Risk Management for the use of N95 respirators and there is no Respiratory Fit Testing Program between Macomb Co. Public Health and Macomb Co. Medical Examiner's Office. This poses an exposure risk to the employee for meningitis, TB, Hep C and COVID-19. Fit testing should be done annually and on all new employees. I was not fit tested before starting autopsies. Fortunately, I had few N95 respirators that I was fit tested for in Washington State and wore them during autopsy procedures on 9/16/20 & 09/17/20. I observed the other Morgue Specialist not wearing an N95 during autopsies and only wearing a basic surgical mask which provides minimal protection and puts him at risk for exposure. I was informed that others only wears basic surgical masks that tie onto the back of neck and top of head and they do not wear an N95 respirator. 2. Staff at Macomb Co. Medical Examiner's Office are wearing contaminated scrubs home after autopsy procedures and washing them in their own washer and dryer. I was told to do so by staff at Macomb ME. The Macomb County Blood Borne Pathogen - Exposure Control Plan (Section VII: Laundry) states that contaminated scrubs (and street clothes) are to be transported to Martha T. Berry Medical Care Facility for proper cleaning and that if staff choose to wear their contaminated scrubs home (which they do at the ME's Office), that they must sign a waiver in order to do so. I would presume that for a ME's Office this would not be advised especially during COVID-19 to wear contaminated scrubs home. Not one employee here has signed a waiver, nor does the current morgue specialist wear a gown/apron to protect his scrubs while processing deceased first thing in the morning while performing photography of deceased, moving deceased around, cleaning blood and other potentially infectious materials off of deceased. When wearing black scrubs, it is not so obvious when scrubs become soiled (especially on the sides of the shirt and back of pants). This creates a public health safety concern as well as unnecessarily exposing family and personal vehicles to blood borne pathogens and COVID-19. 3. Radiation exposure monitor badges are not being worn during radiography procedures (they are still in their packages sitting on a ledge behind the radiation barrier). These monitors have not been monitored for exposure levels. This is not happening at Macomb County Medical Examiner. Employee asked to look at the downloaded logs for exposure levels and they could not provide them to me. 4. Full face cartridge respirators are not provided when creating formaldehyde specimen cups. When a fume hood is not provided, this is recommended. However, the current Morgue Specialist (who has not been fit tested for his N95 respirator) only wears an N95 which does not protect him from carcinogen exposure. He stated he "just makes as many formaldehyde cups as he can until his eyes starts burning". If a fume hood is provided, then only a cartridge respirator can be worn. Again, an N95 does not protect staff from carcinogen exposure and doing so places the employee at risk. 5. I was not TB tested prior to start date and the Morgue Specialist has never been TB tested. This a standard annual test. 6. The Morgue Specialist stated he has not had sharps safety training nor annual bloodborne pathogens training and I observed him hold a blood vacutainer with this hand while inserting contaminated needles on multiple occasions. He continues this practice even after I mentioned that it was unsafe. 7. After bringing these safety concerns verbally to PII (Chief Medical Examiner) and by email PII (Director of Macomb Co. Public Health on 9/17/20 & 9/18/20, I was terminated on 09/21/20 with no description as to why. It was stated that I "did not successfully complete my probationary period". I requested that PII (Macomb Co. Director of Public Health provide me a description as to w


Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2020-09-29