Sharps Disposal

The term sharps refers to any sharp instrument or object used in the delivery of health care services--including hypodermic needles, suture needles, scalpel blades, sharp instruments, IV catheters, and razor blades. 

In health care settings, injuries from needles or other sharp instruments are the number-one cause of occupational exposure to blood borne infections. All staff that come in contact with sharps--from doctors and nurses to those involved in Sharps Disposal--are at risk of infections.

Many injuries can occur when staff uses sharps. The most common ways in which staff gets injured are:

·          Re-capping hypodermic needles after use. This is one of the major causes of sharp-object injuries.

·          When manipulating used sharps (such as bending, breaking, or cutting hypodermic needles), which can cause the blood inside to splatter or cause staff to accidentally injure them.

·          When one staff member accidentally sticks another staff member when carrying unprotected sharps.

·          When sharp items are found in areas where they are unexpected, such as on surgical drapes or bed linen.

·          When handling or disposing of waste that contains used hypodermic needles or other sharps.

·          When sudden movement by the client at the time of injection causes a provider to be accidentally stuck

Improper disposal of contaminated sharp objects can cause infections in your health care facility and community. Any delay in Sharps Disposal will increase the occurrence of accidents. To dispose of sharps correctly:

·          Do not recap, bend, or break needles before disposal, and do not remove the needle from the syringe by hand.

·          Dispose of needles and syringes immediately after use in a puncture-resistant sharps-disposal container.

·          Incinerate sharps-disposal containers in an industrial incinerator whenever the containers become three-quarters full.

·          To discourage scavenging of discarded sharps, decontaminate needles and syringes that cannot be incinerated and render them harmless before burying them.

A Sharps Disposal container is a puncture-resistant container used for the disposal of used needles and other sharps. A sharps container may be made out of a heavy cardboard box, an empty plastic jug, or a metal container.

Here are certain important points that one should bear in mind regarding Sharps Disposal

·          Although burning is the best ways to dispose off medical waste, sharps are not destroyed by burning, except in large industrial incinerators.

·          If an industrial incinerator is not available, sharps can be rendered harmless by placing needles, plastic syringes, and scalpels in a metal container and then, when the container is three-quarters full, pouring in fuel and igniting and burning it until the fire goes out on its own. When this is done, the plastic syringes will melt and, when cool, become a solid block of plastic, with the sharps embedded within the block. The block can then be buried in the type of burial pit used for solid medical waste. If it is not possible to bury all medical waste on site, sharps should be given priority for burial, since they pose the biggest risk of injury and infections.

·          Always wash your hands after handling sharps containers.