Handling Medical Equipment Safely
Medical equipment oftentimes requires special handling. Sharps, for instance, need to be disposed of in sharps containers that are designed to prevent the transmission of disease and to prevent cut hazards from discarded needles and scalpels. When you buy medical equipment, you have to take all of this into account before you actually make the purchase. Some items constitute biohazards—colostomy bags, for instance—and you have to make sure you have a safe way of disposing of them when you need to change a disposable piece of equipment.
Why the Concern?
It wasn’t too long ago that just about everything, including a lot of medical equipment, was just tossed out in the trash for general pickup. This created a situation where a lot of hazardous waste was being disposed of in a regular landfill that was not designed to provide protection against it. The people that handle the garbage are also put at risk when people dispose of hazardous items in this way. Most garbage trucks compact materials, which is a very bad thing if that means that biohazard waste and sharps are going to be coming out of containers and be within the regular trash. (more…)