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Posted By Bill Morrison
We have a number of Feminine Hygiene drivers who go into premises and remove soiled and contaminated waste. Does anyone out there have any advice/experience of a managing this? We provide PPE but should we also be providing Hepatitis B vaccinations and the like?
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Posted By Hilary Charlton
We provide Hep C immunisations for our first aiders and training on bloodborne pathogens. Anyone coming into contact with blood or other bodily fluids should really have this as a minimum I believe.
Hilary
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Posted By Bill Elliott
Bill - Your COSHH assessment should address this issue, but if you take the HSC Health Services Advisory Committee view as described in Safe Disposal of Clinical Waste 2nd edition then immunisation for Hep B and Tetanus is likely to be required. There are other issues to be addressed like PPE - but -PPE should not be the only (or first) line of defence. Regards
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Posted By Robert Whent
Bill,
I used to work for a company who would clean out clinical waste incinerators (probably a little more hazardous?)and we ensured that all of our operatives were offered jabs for anything we could think of.
I think that the offering of the immunisation is as far as you can go. From memory, insisting people get needles stuck in them infringes their human rights.
There is an HSE document on managing risk from clinical waste, I think it resides in the hospital workers advice section.
Hope this is of some help
R
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Posted By John Webster
Bill,
You don't describe the activity. Do they just exchange rigid bins, do they remove and seal a plastic liner, or do the bins contain chemical fluid which is then emptied with the contents?
Whichever, it is the risk of the operatives coming into contact with infectious contents which must be assessed, and the risk of contracting a BBV infection as a result of that contact (e.g. would the chemical fluid be sufficient to destroy harmful pathogens under all forseeable conditions of use).
Depending what you are doing, and what other control measures are in place, attention to basic hygiene practices could be all that is required. I'm sure, however, you will be aware of the added risk posed by needles & other sharps dumped in the containers.
It is primarily for this reason that we offer hepatitis innoculation to all of our clinical waste handlers
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