Sharps & Waste Safety for Building Services and Grounds Employees

1. Sharps & Waste Safety for Building Services and Grounds Employees Radiological Environmental Management -July 2007-

2. Sharps Awareness! • Sharp related injury can have very serious consequences. These include time away from work, uncomfortable medical treatment, and worst of all: disease transmission. • Always be alert when handling sharps or materials in which sharps could be present.

3. Sharps Definition *Items that are capable of puncturing, cutting, or abrading the skin: -glass -broken plastic pipettes -broken glass -broken petri dishes -razor blades -hypodermic needles, etc.

4. Biohazards Definition *Microscopic organisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause infection and illness in people, plants, and animals. The symbol below is a biohazard warning! These symbols can be seen on different types of containers, refrigerators, and freezers.

5. Infectious Waste Definition *Any material that has been used or contaminated with biohazardous agents. • These may include: • Petri dishes • Surgical wraps • Culture tubes • Syringes • Plastic capped tubes, etc.

6. Occupational Hazard Exposure • Laboratory workers routinely work with sharps. • Often sharps are not disposed of correctly.

7. OUCH! Occupational Risks • Building Services employees who work in laboratory related areas will eventually encounter improperly disposed sharps and run the risk of being punctured or lacerated during their workday.

8. Occupational Training • Building services employees are provided safety training and instructions from their supervisors to minimize the chance for injury.

9. Occupational Responsibility • Building Services workers are responsible for conducting themselves in a manner that protects them from occupational hazards by: *using personal protective equipment *reviewing hazard assessments *following instructions provided by their supervisors

10. Occupational Injury • If a sharp injury occurs: • 1) Wash the site with soap and water • Report the incident to your supervisor • 3) Seek medical attention

11. Work Safety Procedures • Follow all instructions • Keep hands out of the laboratory trash containers. Do not search for sharps! • Keep bags of trash away from your body during handling.

12. Work Safety Precautions • Report unsafe conditions or injury to your supervisor. • Do not expose yourself to hazards. • Do not remove trash that contains items unsafe for disposal: sharps, biohazards, or chemicals. These sharps are not to be disposed of in regular trash!!

13. Items Safe for Regular Trash Disposal Note: along with the normal office-type trash, the following slides contain materials that CAN be disposed of in the regular trash. Tips/Tubes: Pipette tips can be disposed in the regular trash if they are not contaminated with chemical or biohazardous materials. However, these are better disposed in a sealed cardboard box. Gloves: Laboratory related gloves can be disposed in the regular trash as well if they are also not contaminated.

14. Safe Items: Lab containers Vials: Plastic vials (such as Eppendorf tubes) can be disposed in the regular trash as long as they are empty and not contaminated. Glass bottles: Any uncontaminated glass bottles can be disposed of in the regular trash as long as they are not contaminated or broken. These bottles must be labeled with a yellow REM triple rinse sticker. However, these are better disposed in a sealed cardboard box.

15. Safe Items: Clean-Broken Sharps • Broken glass and plastic sharps that are clean should be collected in a cardboard box or other strong, secure disposable container. When the box is ready to be removed it must be taped shut and labeled as glass.

16. Items UNSAFE for Regular Trash Note: Do not process any trash containers that have the following materials. Leave them in place and notify your supervisor. Syringes: Syringes that do not have an attached needle are category 2 ‘look-a-like’ waste and should never be disposed with regular trash. Syringes with needles must be disposed in an appropriate sharps container.

17. Items UNSAFE Cont’d Biohazard Bags: Biohazard bags should never be disposed in the regular trash. This also applies to biohazard labeled sharps containers.

18. Items UNSAFE Cont’d Chemicals: Chemicals should never be disposed in the regular trash as well. All chemicals are processed and disposed through the REM hazardous waste program.

19. Items UNSAFE Cont’d Sharps: Loose needles, glass slides, razors, broken glass or plastic pipettes should never be disposed in regular trash.

20. Items UNSAFE Cont’d Unknown liquids, powders, or solids: Do not dispose these types of materials as they may be hazardous chemicals. Do not clean-up any unknown spilled liquids, powders, or solids. Contact your supervisor so that the appropriate disposal techniques will be used. Look a-like waste: This type of waste can be any disposable lab or medical related equipment/material that have the appearance of being contaminated with biohazards or chemicals. However, because it can be mistaken for hazardous material REM is responsible for its removal.

21. Safety!

22. Reporting Chain • Inform your Supervisor of any safety issue or improperly disposed material. • Radiological & Environmental Management contacts: Chemical: Adam Krajicek - arkrajicek@purdue.edu Biohazards: Bob Golden - rwgolden@purdue.edu