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Smart
Disposal for Hypodermic Needles.
Needle Junkies
By
Summer Best
| Eighteen
years ago, on a peaceful New Jersey shoreline, barefoot beachgoers
stumbled across a creepy scene. There, coming in with the
ocean tide, were floating gobs of used syringes and needles,
body tissue samples, medical supplies and other hazardous
waste. |
Someone - a doctor or nurse? A diabetic or drug user? A medical
facility? Had carelessly, and illegally, tossed their medical
trash.
The incident sparked local swimming bans, and tourism was
smashed for the season. Public outcry demanded accountability
and change. Fear of needle sticks (accidental piercing by
a needle), HIV, and pathogenic diseases were a few concerns.
In response, Congress enacted the Medical Waste Tracking Act
(MWTA) of 1988. President Reagan signed the bill November
1 of that year, effectively ensuring "that those who
generate, handle, or dispose of medical waste are accountable,
and it will encourage proper handling and disposal of such
potentially dangerous waste."
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MWTA
expired June 21, 1999, but many states still maintain similar
policies within their jurisdictions. Individual states are
responsible for regulations covering disposal of medical wastes.
Today, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
state and local waste management boards deal exclusively with
the storage, transportation and disposal of wastes. Included
in this are "sharps," or used needles, scalpels,
razors and other cutting instruments.
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Everyday
People
Although most hospitals and veterinary clinics dispose of
sharps responsibly, many individuals outside of medical
professions routinely toss sharps into the household garbage
waste stream. The American Medical Association estimates
that three billion needles and lancets are mixed with household
trash annually. Guilty parties include animal owners, diabetic
needle users, illegal drug users and home health providers.
According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately
1 million people suffer puncture wounds from hypodermic
needles every year. Half of the injuries are caused by improper
disposal in household garbage.
"The common wisdom is that illicit drug users are causing
the needle problem, but people who use needles at home are
actually far more likely to create risk for others,"
said David Goldberg, commercial recycling coordinator for
the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp.
Home users often put needles in soda cans or milk cartons,
or they flush them down the toilet, Goldberg said, noting
that this practice must be changed.
Equine Sharps Disposal
What
about individual horse owners? Routinely, horse owners administer
intramuscular and intravenous injections, whether for vaccines,
joint maintenance, pain management, or other therapy. Some
are practiced within a veterinary-client relationship. Others
are not.
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A pre-paid sharps container offers the horse
owner a convenient solution for sharps disposal. EquiMedic
USA provides a mail-back service, allowing users to ship the
full container back to EquiMedic USA for proper disposal.
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Nathan Slovis, DVM, Chairman of Infectious Disease at Hagyard
Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Kentucky, explained
that sharps disposal is a critical issue for any veterinary
hospital, or any horse owner giving injections.
"If you throw them in the trash, then anyone around the
trash could be injured," Slovis said. "The trash
man, children, anyone could be hurt by a needle or sharp object.
It's more of an issue of injury. The chance of people harmed
with infectious disease from equine needles is slim to none."
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Buy
a Sharps Container
If you administer equine vaccines or injections, or if you
have disposable blades or similar items in your barn or home,
proper disposal should be a critical component of your management
practices. And it's simple to implement with an official "sharps"
container. Inexpensive, easy to store, and environmentally
responsible, a sharps container's thick plastic barrier prevents
needles from poking through.
Simply administer the medication to your horse (discard the
plastic cap), and drop the syringe and needle into the sharps
container.
When the sharps container is full, deliver it to your local
veterinarian, human hospital or other medical facility for
biomedical waste processing. Many facilities will accept containers
for no charge; some charge a small fee.
If you prefer the convenience of mail, many companies now
sell pre-paid sharps containers, offering customers the opportunity
to simply mail a full container directly to a certified medical
waste facility.
Responsible Equine Facilities
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An approved sharps container is a necessity
for good stable management. |
At Hagyard Equine Medical Facility, bio-waste is collected
at least once every week by Stericycle, one of the nation's
largest incinerators of medical bio-hazard waste. Stericycle
retrieves sharps containers, as well as containers containing
other bio-hazardous materials.
"At our hospital, we put the entire syringe and needle
into the sharps container," Slovis said.
Slovis explained that this practice virtually eliminates an
outsider from finding a dirty syringe and being alarmed or
trying to re-use it. With the high numbers used by a large
veterinary clinic, they see no reason to take the chance of
it being mistaken for a human syringe.
"Most horse owners could separate the needle from the
syringe, place the syringe in the trash, and put the needle
in a container," Slovis said. "If not a sharps container,
then a strong jug of some sort, then tape up the top, and
see if your veterinarian or local hospital can dispose of
it properly for you."
Economical
& Easy
"It's my personal goal to motivate every horse owner
to use a sharps container," said Sharon Baker, founder
of EquiMedic USA, an equine first aid kit company based
in Cyrus, Minnesota. "It amazes me how uneducated people
are about sharps. When I ask people, particularly at trade
shows, about what they do with their sharps, they say they
just throw them in the wastebasket. Others put them in a
coffee can. Others will wrap them in duct tape and then
throw them in the wastebasket. It occurred to me that people
just don't know any better."
EquiMedic USA markets and sells several sharps containers.
They provide a 1-qt., environmentally responsible sharps
container for $3.25. Additional sizes are available for
large operations at www.equimedic.com. A 1-qt. size could
take many months - maybe years - for the average horse owner
to fill. It's recommended that you not keep a sharps container
for long periods of time. Excessive pathogen growth will
take place if the container is not replaced periodically.
If you prefer a pre-paid container, EquiMedic USA provides
a mail-back service, allowing users to ship the container
back to EquiMedic USA for disposal.
"The equine industry needs to be responsible,"
Baker said. "I would like to see this industry take
a fast-track, upscale learning level on this, and it's so
easy to implement."
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Temporary
Fix
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A
commercial sharps container is the preferred storage
container for sharps at your home or farm. In a
pinch, many states allow temporary storage in other
containers, such as laundry detergent jugs, bleach
jugs or other strong containers with tight lids.
The suitable container should be:
- Puncture-resistant,
leak proof, shatterproof and able to withstand abuse.
- The
opening should be accessible and safe to use and
it should be possible to safely and easily determine
when the container is full.
- The
container, when sealed, should be easy to handle
without danger of spilling the contents.
- The
container should bear the internationally recognized
bio-hazard symbol.
Want to learn more? The Coalition for Safe
Community Needle Disposal was established in Houston
in 2002 to assume a nationwide role in promoting
the safe disposal of used needles and syringes.
Visit its Web site at www.safeneedledisposal.org.
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Needle
Stick Injuries
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Where
do Needles Go?
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According
to the Centers for Disease Control, needle-stick injuries
can transfer blood and blood-borne pathogens (e.g.,
hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV), but the risk of
transmission from discarded needles is extremely low.
Risk of disease from equine needles is considered "slim
to none."
However, the CDC recommends, "Anyone injured from
a needle stick in a community setting should contact
a physician or go to an emergency room as soon as possible.
The injury should be reported to the local or state
health departments."
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Approved
facilities should responsibly destroy biomedical
waste, such as sharps, by disintegration, incineration,
and/or sterilization and crushing.
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Freelance
writer photographer Summer Best is an avid equestriane and
owner of SunHorse Publishing & Promotions in Ocala,
Florida
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