Apart from doctors, police officers and firemen, there are really not that many jobs that we show the amount of respect that they deserve. One of these “unsung” heroes is the medical waste handler.
Medical waste handlers are usually employed by the delray beach bio-medical waste disposal companies, or they are working with landfills or directly in medical care facilities. Due to their highly sensitive and dangerous nature of work, they require extensive and strict training and education, which has to comply with OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) rules and regulations.
Medical Waste Handler’s Basic Training
Like in any other profession medical waste management Delray Beach handing also requires some basic training and education. A medical waste handler should first and foremost be aware of the danger he or she is putting his or her health every time they are near bio-hazardous wastes. They need to be kept on their toes and never fully relaxed around medical wastes, as one moment of negligence can result in a calamity for their health, someone else’s health, or the environment.
One of the first things that a medical waste handler learns is never to work with medical wastes unless he or she has proper PPE (personal protective equipment) on. The PPE can be varied depending on the level of hazard, so it can include a full hazmat suit that covers the person from head to toes, or it can include just the rubber gloves, face mask, apron or gown and boots.
The most important thing when handling medical wastes is to avoid any kind of skin contact with it. Medical waste handlers are therefore taught to avoid it as the smallest cut can result in a serious infection.
PPE
We already mentioned PPE, or personal protective equipment, but let us delve a little bit more into this. Gloves worn by bio-medical waste disposal workers should be made from a material that will allow them to handle waste with their hands and still be safe from both chemicals and sharps.
Medical waste handlers also need to wear steel-toed boots to keep their feet safe in case any kind of hazardous waste falls accidentally on them. An injury of this kind is less noticeable than the one on the hands, but it is no less dangerous.
Furthermore, a medical waste management worker should never handle bio-hazardous material while wearing short sleeves. Even though it doesn’t officially count as protective equipment, long sleeves and pants are a necessary part of protective clothing during bio-medical waste disposal.
Additionally, medical waste handlers also need to wear either face masks or full respiratory masks to protect their lungs from toxic fumes coming from the bio-medical wastes.
If he or she ever gets exposed to infectious waste (which can happen, even if all the preventive steps have been made, a delray beach medical waste management worker needs to report this immediately to his supervisor and take proper measures against the infection.
