Adrenaline ‘pens’
Adrenaline pens carried by those who are prone to potentially devastating anaphylactic (allergic) reactions are becoming increasingly common. Several incidents have been reported, of carelessly discarded or lost pens, and […]
accident
Motel needlestick horror
A Texas woman was treated at Cumberland Medical Center’s emergency room after lying down in bed and then being stuck in the hand by a used syringe, according to police […]
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 […]
Free webinar on sharps safety in non-hospital settings
The International Healthcare Worker Safety Center is sponsoring a free webinar on a much overlooked topic: “Achieving Sharps Safety Compliance in Non-Hospital Healthcare Settings.”
Are safety sharp devices really safe?
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Protection in law
It is now 9 months or so since a Northern Ireland hospital worker who suffered a sharps injury while handling a bag of clinical waste and feared life-threatening infection will be […]
Needlestick risk – Who pays the premiums?
We tend to believe that much of the work in needlestick prevention comes from the US, with policy development that prohibits recapping of used needles and more recently the development […]
Charged – Failing to dispose of a syringe
A short news report from Australia tells a sorry tale of a police office suffering a sharps injury during a drug raid. The syringe was alleged to have been used […]
Sharps-related infections
We have previously discussed the wide diversity of infections that can be transmitted by sharps or needlestick injury.
Penalty for dumping used needle “grossly inadequate”
Dumping used needles, in playgrounds, parks, alleyways or wherever puts lives at risk, generates fear among communities and lowers property values. In every way, it is unacceptable behavior.
Spillage of clinical wastes from vehicles
Several bags of clinical (medical) waste have been found along US 30 in Warsaw, Indiana. The bags were reported to contain medical waste and other items that came from Kosciusko Community Hospital.
Honolulu landfill ‘disaster’
Further detail is available now concerning ‘failure’ of the controversial city landfill at Waimanalo Gulch.
Needlestick infections
There is widespread misconception that sharps or needlestick infections are associated only with the bloodborne virus Hepatitis B and HIV, and that since no such infections have been recorded among waste […]
Work-related sharps injury
There are several legal and paralegal firms in the UK now getting wise to the high rate of sharps injury to healthcare professionals and others. They offer low-cost or no-win […]
Sharps injuries in the recycling industries
We tend to thing of sharps injury as a hazard largely particular to healthcare professionals and the clinical waste sector but there are ongoing problems in the recycling industries and […]
CCTV footage of Sterecycle explosion
YouTube has a short video clip of CCTV footage showing the violence of the Rotherham Sterecycle explosion. This film was taken from a security camera in an adjacent building situated across a […]
Two injured in Sterecycle plant ‘explosion’
Two people are injured after an “explosion” at Sterecycle’s CHP Rotherham plant.
Never put a needle in a recycling bin!
Recycle for Norfolk have published an interesting news item with this title, emploring poeople to keep used needles out of the recycling system.
Needlestick insurance
Needlestick insurance is becoming big business in the US.
3 year old girl suffers sharps injury
“A mother has told how her 3-year-old daughter pricked her finger in a container of used flu vaccine syringes at a pharmacy
Contract terms for healthcare ancillary staff
Hospital ancillary and support staff may be NHS employees, or increasingly employed by specialist support services companies. This latter, and now very common, arrangement creates many problems usually due to […]
Waste safety training passport scheme
The prevention of accidents in the waste industries is a key requirement since at present accident and injury rates remain high and annual mortality figures still shame the industry. Despite […]
Waste industry operator safety
I have recently proposed, via the CIWM Health & Safety Special Interest Group (SIG), production of a series of leaflets to cover a range of key risks and approaches to injury […]
Vehicle accidents
A truck carrying medical waste rolled over on Route 4 in Torrington at Pothier Road, Connecticut, on Friday 10 December.
Snowy weather
As the UK starts to shiver and snow falls, there is one aspect that impacts on clinical waste management and safety. Discarded sharps, usually a consequence of IV drug abuse, are […]
Kids will be kids?
4 US middle school kids have been suspended for ‘stabbing’ 13 others with an insulin pen that one of them brought into school from their grandmothers home.