December is International Sharps Injury Awarness Prevention Month
December is International Sharps Injury Prevention Awareness Month and Jackson County Public Health would like to remind you of the proper disposal methods for medical sharps materials. Safe management and disposal of sharps materials is important to prevent and avoid accidental needle sticks and other sharps injuries.
Medical sharps are instruments intended to cut or penetrate the skin, they include needles, syringes, lancets, and other medical instruments. Medical sharps pose an injury risk to anyone who comes in contact with them. Medical sharps are often found in household garbage, recyclables or are flushed down the toilet. When these materials end up in the waste system, they can injure waste haulers, landfill operators, and recycling facility workers. When sharps are flushed down the toilet, they can cause problems in plumbing and wastewater treatment plants, or may even end up on beaches, posing risk to humans and animals. Many people use medical sharps in their day to day lives to help manage different health conditions, so knowing proper disposal methods is important!
There are four easy steps to get your medical sharps ready for safe disposal, these steps can greatly reduce the risk of injury!
Clip the needle points with needle clippers, or recap or re-sheathe discarded sharps to help prevent needle sticks. Note that recapping needles is prohibited in healthcare facilities because it puts healthcare providers at risk of sticking themselves with a contaminated needle in the process, however, individuals who administer their own medications are not at risk from their own needles.
Place sharps in a hard, puncture-resistant container with a secure lid or cap. Acceptable containers include commercially available sharps containers or thick-walled plastic detergent or bleach bottles with screw caps. Unacceptable containers include coffee cans (the lids are easily punctured), plastic milk jugs, plastic bags, aluminum cans and soda bottles. Please note: do not add bleach to the container.
Visibly label the sharps container with the word “biohazard”, “infectious waste”, or “sharps”, or with the biohazard emblem. If you have put sharps in a container that would otherwise be recyclable, label it “Do not recycle”.
When the container is full, sealed, and labeled, store it out of reach of children and dispose of it properly at a sharps collection station or through another method described below. Find a sharps collection station near you here: https://wisconsindnr.shinyapps.io/sharpscollectorsite/.
Safe ways to dispose of household sharps include:
Taking your sharps to a registered collection station.
Contact your doctor, clinic, or local hospital. Many healthcare facilities accept sharps, but are not required to register and therefore may not appear on the list of registered sharps collection stations.
Use a “mail-back” sharps program, which can be found via a google search. The company should provide containers and packaging that will meet the U.S. postal regulations.
Reduce the amount of sharps you have to dispose of by clipping the needles of the syringe. The needle-less syringe can go in the household trash. Remember, the needles will still need to be disposed of via a sharps collection container.
If you need to use sharps when you are away from your home, look for sharps boxes in public restrooms in airports, restaurants, and highway rest areas. Hotels and motels may offer a small needle box for use in your room. Also consider carrying a small sharps box with you to use when these other options are not available. Remember, never throw your sharps in the trash.
To reduce health risk to the public, Wisconsin rules require all people to manage their sharps safely. All sharps injuries should be taken seriously. It is illegal to put sharps in the trash or with your recyclables. Sharps must be packaged safely and treated render the sharps as non-infectious, broken and unable to be reused.
Jackson County: Healthy People, Strong Community.
