Save 50% – 305-677-2343!
Bio-Hazardous Waste Disposal Davie: How to Dispose of Sharps Waste?
If you are working in medical waste management Davie, industry, you should know that one of the items that requires a high level of attention when it comes to biomedical waste are sharps.
Sharps are instruments like needles, syringes, razor blades or scalpels, in other words, any medical instrument used during diagnosing or treating a patient, during research that have the ability to lacerate or puncture the person’s skin.
What makes sharps particularly dangerous is the fact that when they cut or piece the human skin, they can also introduce different types of bacteria, viruses and other blood-borne pathogens if the needle was not disinfected properly.
Protecting the Medical Waste Management Davie
Sharps pose the biggest threat of all medical wastes to bio-hazardous waste removal handlers. This is the reason why these workers must stay protected at all times when handling biohazardous wastes. This means wearing proper PPE or personal protective equipment. The most important part of this gear are puncture-resistant rubber gloves
Sharps Containers and Their Importance in Bio-Hazardous Waste Removal
Sharps are not something that can be disposed of in a trash bin with regular waste, but it shouldn’t be mixed with other types of medical waste in the red biohazardous bag. The biggest reason for this is that a needle can easily pierce the bag and allow some of the infectious contents of the bag to spill out.
Instead, before they can be placed in a red biohazard bag, these wastes need to go in a sharps container. Every hospital and clinic should have these containers at hand in order to fulfill their bio-hazardous waste removal obligations. The containers can then be used by surgeons or dentists to safely throw away used needles.
Sharps containers are usually red and have a bio-hazard sign on them for easy recognition. They are usually made of some sort of material that is not easy to get punctured by the content inside and does not leak. That, of course excludes cardboard or wooden boxes. In addition, sharps container should also have a lid that can be securely closed.
There are different sizes of sharps containers, depending on the medical waste management Davie needs of the medical care facility. For example, you probably noticed a small box in which your dentist throws used needles. That is most definitely a sharps container. The size of the business and the amount of needles and other sharps that it produces determines the need for a bigger or smaller sharps container. You should consult with your bio-hazardous waste removal company about the size of the sharps containers that you will need.
Do Sharps Need to be Destroyed?
No. In fact, it is more cost effective to disinfect and sanitize sharps using a an autoclave or some sort of chemical solution. This way, instead of destroying needles, you can recycle them or even reuse them. This is a much more cost-effective medical waste management Davie method than putting sharps into, for example an incinerator.
