Sharps Disposal

“Sharps” is a medical term for devices with sharp points or edges that can puncture or cut skin.  

Examples of sharps include:

Needles – hollow needles used to inject drugs (medication) under the skin

Syringes – devices used to inject medication into or withdraw fluid from the body

Lancets, also called “fingerstick” devices – instruments with a short, two-edged blade used to get drops of blood for testing. 

Auto Injectors, including epinephrine and insulin pens – syringes pre-filled with fluid medication designed to be self-injected into the body

Infusion sets – tubing systems with a needle used to deliver drugs to the body.

Connection needles/sets – needles that connect to a tube used to transfer fluids in and out of the body. 

Importance of safe disposal 

Used needles and other sharps are dangerous to people and pets if not disposed of safely because they can injure people and spread infections that cause serious health conditions. The most common infections are:

Hepatitis B (HBV),

Hepatitis C (HCV), and

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Safe sharps disposal is important whether you are at home, at work, at school, traveling, or in other public places such as hotels, parks, and restaurants.

Never place loose needles and other sharps (those that are not placed in a sharps disposal container) in the household or public trash cans or recycling bins, and never flush them down the toilet. This puts trash and sewage workers, janitors, housekeepers, household members, and children at risk of being harmed.

Improper sharps management is a major factor involved in what is categorized as unsafe injections. Annually these account for 21 million, 2 million, and 260,000 of new HBV, HCV, and HIV infections annually. For each year, these infections are modeled to cost society over 270,000 lives between 2000 and 2030.

Extreme care must be taken in the management and disposal of sharps waste. The main goal in sharps waste management is to safely handle all materials until they can be properly disposed. From the moment sharps waste is produced, it is to be handled as little as possible. Health care workers are to minimize their interaction with sharps waste by disposing of it in a sealable container. The self-locking and sealable containers are made of plastic so that the sharps waste can not easily penetrate through the sides. The unit is designed so that the whole container can be disposed of with the other bio-hazardous waste. Single use sharps containers of various sizes are sold throughout the world.

References- 

1- www.fda.gov

2- The cost effectiveness of policies for the safe and appropriate use of injection in healthcare settings, WHO, Dziekan et al

3- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sharps_Container.jpg