Standard Operating Procedure for disposal of biological waste

Transcription

1 Standard Operating Procedure for disposal of biological waste Effective date: 22 nd March 2018 Review due date: 19 th March 2018 Original Author Name: Rebecca Toone Position: Technician Date: Reviewer Name: Pippa Heath Signature: Position: Physiology Technician Date: Approved by Name: Dr Lisa Austin Position: DfH Research Manager Date: Signature: Amendment Chronology Version Effective Reason for amendment Reviewed/Amended by number date First issue Rebecca Toone Additional information added re: Ben Lee contaminated non-sharp objects disposal & how bags should be sealed Clarification of sharps Instructions for disposal of pipette tips Section for glass waste General rewording to make clearer Appendices added Yung-Chih Chen, Andreas Wallbaum, Pippa Heath

2 Minor changes to Risk Assessments Mark Thomas Flow chart added. Bagging of Mark Thomas hazardous waste amended. Disposal of Biological Waste Safety Information: This Standard Operating Procedure describes procedures for dealing with biological waste and contaminated sharps. Protective gloves MUST be worn at all times. You should refer to the following risk assessments prior to handling biological waste. biological_waste dealing_with_blood_spills Contaminated Non-Sharp Objects: ALL blood contaminated waste such as gloves, syringes, wipes and small amounts of tissues, and any other contaminated items not classified as sharps must be immediately placed in autoclave bags that are clearly marked Hazardous Waste (Appendix 1). These bags are located in the store cupboard in 6WS and in the cupboard unit in 1 West. Whenever you are performing procedures that will generate contaminated items, you must ensure that a biohazard bag is within easy reach. Under no circumstances are non-contaminated waste items, or contaminated sharps, to be placed in these bags. See contaminated sharps objects section for disposing of pipette tips. Syringes must be capped using the syringe caps provided in order to minimise the risk posed to autoclave operators. When the hazardous waste bags are ¾ full (under no circumstances should hazardous waste bags be completely full or overflowing) or a trial is over, they must be double bagged, sealed using autoclave tape and placed in the blue hazardous waste boxes ready for collection. When double-bagging, the sealed inner bag must be entirely enclosed within the outer bag the neck of the inner bag must not protrude out through the neck of the outer bag. Hazardous waste bags must be cleared from the lab after each trial. Once sealed, under no circumstances are hazardous waste bags to be re-opened.

3 Blue hazardous waste boxes are located in the store cupboard outside the 1 West Laboratory, and outside of the 6WS laboratory and East teaching laboratory. When the waste boxes in 1 West are full please contact a physiology technician so that they can be collected and replaced with empty boxes. Contaminated Sharp Objects: ALL contaminated sharps waste that could cause a puncture/cut wound (e.g. scalpels, blades, needles and small amounts of broken glass) must be immediately placed in a yellow sharps bin (Appendix 2). IMPORTANT: Under no circumstances are contaminated sharps to be placed in a non-sharps bin. These bins are available in each laboratory (see technician for locations). Under no circumstances are contaminated non-sharps, or non-contaminated items to be placed in the yellow sharps bins. When the yellow sharps bins are ¾ full (under no circumstances should yellow sharps bins be completely full or overflowing), they must be sealed and placed with the blue hazardous waste boxes ready for collection. Pipette tips contaminated with blood must be placed in a Bio-bin (Appendices 3 & 4). Once full the Bio-bin needs to be placed in autoclave bag, as the cardboard bin will lose its integrity during autoclaving. Glass waste: Glass waste including small amount of chemical bottles, if possible should be placed in the 11.5 litre yellow burn bin (in 6WS biochemistry laboratory). Refer to the Flow Chart in Appendix 5 for a breakdown of the disposal routes for the various types of waste. Collection of Hazardous Waste: To arrange collection of hazardous waste boxes contact Russell Barlow by on R.J.Barlow@bath.ac.uk. In these s, you must also cc in waste@lists.bath.ac.uk. Usual practice is to contact them on Thursday afternoons before 1600 for collection on Monday morning. They will confirm by return . To arrange the collections of sharps bins a hazardous waste transfer must be completed. This is currently handled by Russell Barlow.

4 Appendices 1. Biohazard bin with hazardous waste bag inside 2. Sharps bin

5 3. 1L Bio-bin for pipette tips 4. 6L Bio-bin for pipette tips

6 5. Flow Chart for the disposal of waste. End of Document