Sharps disposal: difference between revisions
Diff·revision 2 → 3·21:56, 23 May 2026
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| 12 | The hazard is quantified through the epidemiology of occupational needlestick injury. Percutaneous exposure to blood carries a documented risk of transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, with reported per-exposure probabilities differing between the three by roughly two orders of magnitude. Those figures underpin both the design requirements for sharps containers and the occupational rules that prohibit practices such as recapping.{{r|mmwr2001,elder2006}} | 12 | The hazard is quantified through the epidemiology of occupational needlestick injury. Percutaneous exposure to blood carries a documented risk of transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, with reported per-exposure probabilities differing between the three by roughly two orders of magnitude. Those figures underpin both the design requirements for sharps containers and the occupational rules that prohibit practices such as recapping.{{r|mmwr2001,elder2006}} |
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| + | 14 | Container standards specify puncture resistance, resistance to spillage when overturned, an aperture that admits a sharp but resists retrieval, a temporary closure and an irreversible final closure, and a legible fill line. The dominant international standard is ISO 23907-1; national schemes add colour coding that encodes the required treatment route, so that a container of sharps contaminated with cytotoxic medicinal product is routed differently from a container of clean lancets.{{r|iso23907,htm0701}} | |
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| + | 16 | == Scope and definitions == | |
| + | 17 | Definitions of ''sharp'' are functional rather than enumerative. Health Technical Memorandum 07-01, the waste-management guidance for the English health service, defines sharps as items capable of causing cuts or puncture wounds, and includes needles, cannulae, scalpel blades, broken glass ampoules, stitch cutters and lancets. The United States occupational standard defines contaminated sharps as any contaminated object that can penetrate the skin, listing needles, scalpels, broken capillary tubes and exposed dental wires.{{r|htm0701,osha1910}} | |
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| + | 19 | Two boundary cases recur in the peptide-handling context. | |
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| + | 21 | ; Syringes without needles : A barrel from which the needle has been removed is not itself a sharp, but the act of removal is a recognised injury mechanism, and guidance therefore generally treats the assembled device as a single unit for disposal rather than encouraging separation.{{r|who2015sharps}} | |
| + | 22 | ; Empty glass vials : A [[vial]] is not a sharp while intact. Broken glass is. Waste guidance in several jurisdictions accordingly treats pharmaceutical glass as sharps waste when it has contained a medicinal product, on the grounds that it will break in the waste stream.{{r|htm0701}} | |
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| 14 | == References == | 24 | == References == |
| 15 | {{reflist}} | 25 | {{reflist}} |
| + | 26 | <ref name="iso23907">ISO 23907-1:2019, ''Sharps injury protection — Requirements and test methods — Part 1: Single-use sharps containers''. International Organization for Standardization.</ref> | |
| 16 | <ref name="htm0701">Department of Health (England). ''Health Technical Memorandum 07-01: Safe Management of Healthcare Waste''. London (2013).</ref> | 27 | <ref name="htm0701">Department of Health (England). ''Health Technical Memorandum 07-01: Safe Management of Healthcare Waste''. London (2013).</ref> |
| + | 28 | <ref name="osha1910">Occupational Safety and Health Administration. ''Bloodborne Pathogens'', 29 CFR 1910.1030, as amended by the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (2001). United States Department of Labor.</ref> | |
| 17 | <ref name="mmwr2001">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Updated U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for the Management of Occupational Exposures to HBV, HCV, and HIV and Recommendations for Postexposure Prophylaxis." ''MMWR Recommendations and Reports'' 50(RR-11):1–52 (2001).</ref> | 29 | <ref name="mmwr2001">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Updated U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for the Management of Occupational Exposures to HBV, HCV, and HIV and Recommendations for Postexposure Prophylaxis." ''MMWR Recommendations and Reports'' 50(RR-11):1–52 (2001).</ref> |
| + | 30 | <ref name="who2015sharps">World Health Organization. ''WHO Guideline on the Use of Safety-Engineered Syringes for Intramuscular, Intradermal and Subcutaneous Injections in Health Care Settings''. Geneva (2015).</ref> | |
| 18 | <ref name="elder2006">Elder A, Paterson C. "Sharps injuries in UK health care: a review of injury rates, viral transmission and potential efficacy of safety devices." ''Occupational Medicine'' 56(8):566–574 (2006).</ref> | 31 | <ref name="elder2006">Elder A, Paterson C. "Sharps injuries in UK health care: a review of injury rates, viral transmission and potential efficacy of safety devices." ''Occupational Medicine'' 56(8):566–574 (2006).</ref> |
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| ⋮ | ⋮ | ||
| 21 | [[Category:Injection technique]] | 34 | [[Category:Injection technique]] |
| 22 | [[Category:Clinical practice]] | 35 | [[Category:Clinical practice]] |
| + | 36 | [[Category:Harm reduction]] | |
| 23 | 37 |