The Andrews - Life in Kanab

Just watched an awesome movie about an engineer who designed a safe needle when his best friends daughter (a nurse) was accidentally stuck at work.  I couldn't get the official movie page to come up but this link works - Puncture.  Some interesting facts about needles and the fact that in the late 60's manufacturers switched from glass needles (which could be sanitized) to plastic needles (which could not be sanitized).

• Each year, nurses, physicians and other healthcare workers suffer an estimated 800,000 accidental needlestick injuries in U. S. hospitals.
• More than 1,000 of them become infected with HIV/AIDS — just like the emergency room nurse in "Puncture" — hepatitis B and C and other deadly blood-borne diseases.
• Worldwide, needle reuse and needle-stick injuries result in an estimated 1,300,000 deaths, 23 million hepatitis infections and 260,000 HIV/AIDS infections annually.
• In November 2000, President Clinton signed the Needle-stick Safety and Prevention Act, which calls for the use of "safety-engineered" needle devices to protect workers. Unfortunately, a decade later, little has changed. The main reason: hospital group purchasing organizations (GPOs).