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| Vol. 17, No. 37 | July 23, 1998 |
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Use caution with sharp objects
Special care and caution must be exercised by all research, health and animal care personnel in the use and disposal of sharp or piercing objects. Needlesticks or cuts from contaminated sharp objects (sharps) present a significant occupational health risk because such injuries may directly introduce pathogens, chemicals or radioactive materials into the body.
Sharps include needles, syringes, razor blades, slides, scalpels, pipettes, broken plastic or glassware and other devices capable of cutting or piercing the skin, including micropipettes and pipette tips.
The following practices must be observed when handling and disposing of these items:
- Syringes, with or without needles attached, must go into a sharps container.
- Micropipettes, pipette tips and Pasteur pipettes should be placed in a glass or metal container for disposal.
- Large pipettes should go into the original cardboard or fiberboard box after the container has been lined with plastic to contain any residual liquids.
- Clean pipettes, micropipettes, pipette tips or Pasteur pipettes can be placed in a glass disposal box for disposal.
- Each of these classes of sharps will need to be further segregated according to its particular hazard (i.e., biological, radioactive or chemical).
- Chemically contaminated materials must be kept together and the waste label must list the type of residual chemical left in the sharp. This is disposed of through the chemical waste program. Biological or biohazardous waste must be disposed of through the infectious waste program. Radioactively contaminated sharps must be disposed of through the radiation program.
Contact the Department of Occupational Health and Safety for guidance on sharps that are contaminated with more than one hazardous material.
Questions concerning the disposal of radioactive waste should be directed to William Fendt, 831-1434; chemical waste questions should be directed to David Levandoski, 831-8274; and infectious or biological waste questions should be directed to Krista Murray, 831-1433.
For more information, also check out the web site at: http://www.udel.edu/OHS/sharpdisp.html
