EEA Technical report No 8/2011 provides a comprehensive overview of hazardous substances in Europe’s fresh and marine waters. The document should provide a starting point, or refresher, for all those […]
Northampton General Hospital claims savings of around £20,000 on clinical waste disposal through their initiatives to drive enhanced source segregation and exclude inapproriate items into clinical waste containers. “We’ve asked […]
Staff at Mary Washington Hospital in Virginia, US, have been dumping medical waste in the city sewer system, including two recent cases when used bandages, gloves and syringes clogged a […]
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 […]
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
A couple of years ago, when the talk about the potential of safety sharp devices in reducing sharps injuries I had a wager with a good friend, that the incidence […]
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 […]
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, 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 […]
Recent reports from New Zealand and Ireland report underreporting of sharps injuries in around one third of doctors and nurses respectively. This is in accord with the many other studies […]
An artist in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India is making a name for herself ‘painting’ with hospital waste. Using caps from various vials and bottle caps etc, to assemble collages, this […]
Ever since the mis-guided reversal of colour coding for clinical wastes, from red/yellow/Tiger, to yellow/orange/Tiger there has been a plethora of minor publications concerning errors in waste segregation and proposing […]
Clinical wastes from laboratories in hospitals, universities and other research or manufacturing facilities may comprise a variety of hazardous materials and will usually be considered as hazardous by risk of […]
Many nursing homes, small clinics and GP surgeries manage their clinical and other wastes in ways that would, should, cross the line toward prosecution. Those wishing to track back through […]
There is much chatter at present, and many glossy advertisements backed up with frothy press releases, to describe the work of a consortium of major medical device manufacturers who promise […]
HTM 07-01 recommends extensive segregation of waste and in their turn the Environment Agency expects that it will happen and penalises waste management operators if it doesn’t. That regulatory stance […]
Visiting today a highly regarded NHS Imaging (Radiology) Department – perhaps the biggest in London – I was able to see almost every room and treatment bay ranging from a wide […]
I have been asked for views on clinical waste pre-acceptance criteria, and the various layers of EA guidance – it is only guidance and not law, and if a better […]
It is reported in today’s Guardian that NHS managers have been “ordered” to consider the environmental impact of their decisions. Last updated: Sunday, April 12, 2020
It is inevitable that in healthcare many expensive supplies are opened and unpacked for use but never actually used. These items are then discarded as clinical waste, though they need […]
It is reported that an Avery Weigh-Tronix weighing system is to be installed at East Kent Hospital Trust with a view to save £100,000 per year on its clinical waste […]
Several groups have published on the gains that can be made through more detailed source segregation of wastes. Sadly, the message has generally been overstated by an insistence of a degree […]
An interesting discussion of Podiatry Forum questions the responsibility for the costs of disposal of clinical waste sacks in a shared consulting room. Though that is not our concern, it […]
While the environmental pressure group Health Care Without Harm is supporting a group of US nurses to improve source segregation to minimise ‘red bag’ or clinical waste volumes, some tough […]
There are many impacts to errors in waste segregation and the failure to adequately separate individual waste streams. These include additional costs in disposal, materials wastage, regulatory intervention and penalties […]