Safety syringes are increasingly used as a substitute to ordinary syringes in the United States when former president Bill Clinton signed the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in November 2000.

The Act was in response to strong lobby by the American Nurses Association (ANA) for a new legislation that will require all health care facilities to use needleless systems or needles with engineered protection.

This came following a 1998 accident in which Massachusetts Nurses Association president Karen Daley was confirmed to have contracted HIV and Hepatitis C from a needlestick injury.

She was infected with the two diseases while disposing of used needles.