Biohazards, my favorite way to start the day!

[ShinyGreenApple]

I walked into the pharmacy Thursday morning, stepped behind the counter, and saw a red box sitting there behind one of the registers, on the floor. Upon closer inspection (without touching it), I see that it is a sharps container, a gallon or larger, and it is FULL to the brim with used insulin syringes. Someone had written on it in Sharpie "Found in parking lot. Please dispose of."

UGH! I wanna find whoever left this shit in our parking lot and give them a good smack, and I want to give an even harder smack to whatever overnight employee who thought it would be appropriate to just throw it behind the pharmacy counter instead of calling management and taking the correct precautions. We do NOT handle disposal of sharps or old medicine, we're not qualified, we just don't do it! Not to mention that there is only a saloon type swinging door stopping you from getting behind the pharmacy registers, since the gate doesn't go down in front of them, only the part that has the pharmacists counter and drugs. Anyone literally could have gone behind that counter and gotten into the needles.

[Sapphire Silk]

Oh for heavens sake, how stupid.

In most jurisdictions, it is OK for private citizens to throw that stuff in the regular trash. My Dad used to use a coffee can, so people wouldn't know what was in it.

[Seshat]

*shudders re Panacea's words* I don't like the idea of serious biohazards in regular trash.

I'm sorry, ShinyGreenApple, but my instinct if I found a biohazard would be to take it to the nearest pharmacy or doctor's office, too.

OTOH, I guess that's the difference between a layman who doesn't know any better, vs a co-worker who should, hm?

[HappyFun Ball]

I used to have to give myself Viviglobin (I think that's what it was called) it required I put 6 small needles in my stomach and the medicine would slowly inject over 2 hours (82 CC's of stuff).. Anyways, the nurse who came to show me how to do it said I could toss the Sharps container in the trash.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Taking it to a pharmacy is one thing, we could have directed them to the proper place to put it, bit the pharmacy was obviously closed when this was done - I know so because I was the one who rolled the gate down the night before. I don't know about putting this stuff in the trash, but this was just left in the parking lot and not in a trash can or dumpster, both of which are easily accessible.

However, I too shudder at the thought of sharps in the regular trash . . .

[Sapphire Silk]

Biohazards that come from a medical facility have to be incinerated. It's very expensive to do this, which is why I'm always getting on my students not to fill up the sharps boxes with used alcohol pads or other trash.

Other facilities, like a pharmacy, don't necessarily fall under these regulations normally, but when someone just dumps sharps on them, they may be required to treat them as biohazards and have to pay to properly dispose of them. Which is an unreasonable expense for the general public to expect these businesses to provide for free when the regular trash is just fine.

[LillFilly]

I remember with the dog's insulin needles we were directed to snap the needles off and throw them in a can or something and tape it shut. Don't know if we were directed to do this since the needles were used on animals, not people.

[Sapphire Silk]

I remember with the dog's insulin needles we were directed to snap the needles off and throw them in a can or something and tape it shut. Don't know if we were directed to do this since the needles were used on animals, not people.

It was to keep the needles from being reused by junkies. In areas where there are no needle exchange programs, drug addicts will steal used needles from hospitals, doctors offices, or citizens known to have say diabetes. Breaking off the needle renders the syringe useless.

However, it also creates a risk of a shard of metal flying somewhere. We stopped breaking needles (the sharps boxes used to come with a built in cutter) back in the 80's in the hospital.

[bhskittykatt]

I shudder to think of needles in the trash. Takes me back to when I was emptying trash cans around the property. Thankfully, something possessed me to wear jeans on that hot day, because when that bag of trash bumped my leg, I got pricked by a needle. I credit the jeans for it not breaking the skin. Flipped me out.

I sometimes come across needles in soda bottles. Unless there are a lot, I try to fish them out and put them in our sharps. I don't know how much we pay for sharps disposal...we just package it up, tape the paperwork to the return box, and away it goes. Corporate is in charge of the contract for our sharps disposal.

We just had to send a couple boxes back because one customer left a handbag stuffed completely full of syringes. It filled two of our sharps containers!!! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. I was glad I wasn't the one who had to transfer all that to sharps!

[Sapphire Silk]

Needles themselves should not go directly into the trash. They should go into a container that is then taped shut, and THEN put into the trash. My Dad used to use a coffee can.

After that, it goes to the landfill to molder for a hundred years or so. I'm sure archaeologists of the future will take our landfills apart with a brush and dental pick, and write papers about the crap we threw away.

They won't have to worry about HIV or Hep C after so many centuries. Tetanus is another matter

[lachesis]

OMG that's *shudder* just awful. I saw an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive last night and the hoarder woman had like, 13 different diseases. I don't remember what she took injections for, but she used to properly dispose of them in a sharps container. Of course, that got filled up so she just started throwing the used needles on the overflowing trash pile that was growing on one side of her couch in the living room!! This is why I watch those kind of shows. It makes me want to clean my house.