Health Minister announces new watchdog to minimize medical wastage
The current Health Minister Lord Howe has announced an intention to establish a new supervisory body in an attempt to minimize around £300m lost within the NHS each year due […]
clinical waste disposal
Resomation for tissue waste disposal?
Apparently, the funeral industry is the second biggest source of pollution after fossil fuel fired power stations, but an alternative to cremation could reduce the UK’s carbon footprint. Last updated: […]
London riots
It is difficult to imagine quite what the link might be between the recent London riots and clinical waste. Pulse is reporting that out-of-hours GPs and their deputising services were forced to reduce home visits […]
The Chinese approach to recycling?
The Chinese market for clinical waste management is massive but remains largely unexploited due to the problems associate with breaking into the Eastern market, of attitudes to safe disposal that […]
PPE for waste handlers
PPE for waste handlers is a somewhat thorny subject – many do not wear it, even when it is provided while others, many others, assume that a corporate sweatshirt or […]
Sharps bin for ambulant use
Sharps bins are generally big and bulky. 1, 2, 4, or more litres capacity, these smaller sizes may sit neatly on a desk or benchtop but for those who are […]
Pharma waste drop boxes
The simplest ideas are often the best. To manage the safe and environmentally sound disposal of community pharmaceutical wastes, several Oklahoma counties have installed pharma drop boxes at popular locations, […]
Recycled medical waste floods city
“It’s wobbly with a crooked needle and a depressed piston. The tip looks blunt, the cap is loose and the tube has a pale exterior. ‘For single use only‘ says […]
Egypt returns to burning of medical wastes
In a policy shift that reinstates burning of clinical wastes, Egypt is finally moving toward control of its present 150 tonnes per day problem. Last updated: Monday, August 1, 2011
Who suffers most sharps injuries and body fluid exposures?
Sharps injury, and to a lesser extend blood and body fluid exposures, are a constant problem for health professionals and great attention is given to its prevention. However, we have raised […]
€10,000 for needle ‘scare’
A toddler who may have suffered a needlestick injury while playing in a medical centre, has been awarded €10,000. In September 2007, 18-month-old Callum Wynne and his brother had been in the […]
Innovative RFID use
RFID devices are not widely used in the UK clinical waste sector. Their potential is considerable, to identify and track individual waste containers, and provide a data framework for billing […]
Birmingham clinical waste collection problems
Clinical waste collection problems sometimes run in a manner that is less than satisfactory, and services operated by Birmingham City Council are obviously no exception. Last updated: Thursday, October 11, 2018
Pharmaceutical discharges from ATT treatment wastewaters
The possibility of unacceptable pharmaceutical discharges from ATT treatment wastewaters has repeatedly been used as an unacceptable ‘tool’ by EA to maniplulate their regulatory position. Last updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Medical waste dumped into Satilla River, Ware County, Georgia
It seems that it turns up everywhere, medical or clinical waste umped into the environment generally by small producers and those seeking to avoid disposal costs, or by others who […]
Clinical waste found on UK beach – Liverpool
A ‘pollution alert’ was triggered in the Liverpool city region when a man spotted what appeared to be toxic chemicals and sacks of clinical waste floating on the incoming tide. Several […]
Diversion of medical waste items to re-use
The composition of mixed clinical waste is highly variable and separaton of individual items for re-use is not practicable without source separation. Though downstream separation of plastics, rubber (latex) and […]
Syringe horror for Aussie gardener
Yet another regional news report, this time from Australia’s Sunshine Coast, of a sharps injury from a needle discarded into undergrowth garden borders of a holiday complex and lost in […]
High prevalence of HIV, Hep B, Hep C in IV drug users
Today’s BMJ carries a short report of the World Drug Report, launched at the UN headquarters in New York where the UN’s secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said that illicit drugs cause some […]
Handling waste from Norovirus outbreaks
The Hospital Infection Society is presently reviewing the penultimate draft of its guidance document “Guidelines for the Management of Norovirus Outbreaks in Acute and Community Health and Social Care Settings”. […]
Waste Symposium, Sardinia
The thirteenth edition of the Sardinia Symposium will be held from 3-7 October 2011 and will include two general sessions, three specialized sessions and two workshop sessions for a total […]
Medical Waste Institute versus Environmental Protection Agency
The Washington DC Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency for standards of performance for new and future medical and hospital incinerators of infectious waste. […]
BBV transmission
The estimated rate of BBV transmission after sharps injury is widely publicised. For Hepatitis B Virus infections the risk is around 30%, for Hepatitis C 3% and for HIV infections around 0.3% risk. […]
How and where to store waste carts?
As if to prove the point made not more than an hour ago, about the inadequacy of waste storage arrangements in care and nursing homes, a news report from North […]
Waste management errrors common in failing care homes
The current “scandal” of failing care homes for the elderly and disabled in the UK should be of concern to us all. The number of residents living in these failing […]
Take care with gloves
Correct glove use and associated hand hygiene are undoubtedly primary health and safety issues for all of those working right across the waste industries, and for those handling clinical and […]
Taking glass out of pathology wastes
The vast majority of pathology laboratory waste can be recycled. It contains a high proportion of plastic and with the exception of glass, not much else. That glass fraction is […]
Sharps waste recycling
Sharps waste recycling, and indeed recycling of materials including ATT-processed plastics, latex and metals from non-sharps waste must be an environmentally sound option when compared with incineration alone. It is […]
UK Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011
The UK Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011 is published and accessible at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/2011/06/14/pb13540-waste-review/ Last updated: Sunday, June 29, 2014
Will safety sharps eliminate disposal-related sharps injury?
US and other legislation mandates introduction of engineered safety sharp devices within a year and already there has been wide uptake. Similar European legislation applies through Council Directive 2010/32/EU but […]