Through we are continually criticising aspects of the management of sharps in the community, from self-administered medications to the management of drug litter, rest assured that compared to most areas of the US we are light years ahead.

Much of this is down to the NHS, providing a global catch-all health service that isn’t (yet) so fragmented to a myriad of small care providers at every level from GP or family physician through clinics and diagnostic/treatment centres to large insurance-led hospitals. Each wants to compete, surviving in a cut-throat commercial environment that eschews the rigors of standardisation and regulation and looks for the best available, and cheapest, option.

So too in the community, where few sharps users are provided with sharps bins by their prescribers. Margarine tubs, plastic drinks bottles and other ad hoc containers are pressed into service, which then find their way into the trash, the domestic waste stream, without raising a regulatory eyebrow. It’s all perfectly legitimate. That’s just how it works.

But is can be improved.

After all these years of poor disposal practice, one might imagine that the problem was plainly apparent and that the lessons were learned. Apparently, not so. So ISIPS, the International Sharps Injury Prevention Society, actually one of their contributors but they fail to identify who this is, is running a US-based survey to gather more information.

This can only be a good thing. If you are in the US, please contribute your experience by completing the SurveyMonkey questionnaire.