There is considerable medical care taking place in the home; obvious home care is injecting insulin for the diabetic. People who suffer from certain types of cancer such as leukemia may often require injections of certain medicines once they have been released from the hospital. As a result of this home care which involves needles, people are concerned about the medical waste; in most cases they are not aware if these needles can simply be thrown in the garbage or if they require some other type of disposal method. The truth is, in most jurisdictions it is illegal to dispose of sharps in normal household waste, in most cases sharps disposal by mail is the most convenient and cost effective method.
Why worry?
Any used needles or other medical sharps that are simply thrown out in the trash ends up in landfills, sewage treatment plants or other places where the general public may get injured. It is easy to contact a debilitating disease from a needle puncture wound, infections such as hepatitis or HIV can be transmitted by needles that had been used by someone carrying these and other diseases. You may know that you are free from any infectious diseases but the person who inadvertently gets stabbed does not and will usually have to submit to expensive tests.
What to do:
There are approved sharps disposal containers available, the moment the needle has been used, drop the used needle in this container. When the containers are filled, sharps disposal by mail is normally the best and most effective disposal method as the used sharps are returned to a disposal facility that is properly prepared for this task.
While you have the sharps container in your home keep it out of the way of children and pets and mail it back for disposal when it is about 2/3 full, do not pack it tight as you may get injured with a needle prick.
What not to do:
- Do not dispose of sharps in the regular household trash
- Do not attempt to burn them
- Do not flush used sharps down the toilet
Improper disposal of medical waste including sharps has become a serious problem now that a lot of care is being given outside a hospital setting where disposal is organized. Make sure that you dispose of needles properly; sharps disposal by mail is the first step in preventing serious infections and injury.
