Dear All, I'm currently formulating a response to a colleague who has formally raised a concern about used tissues and would welcome another perspective. To give you some background, my organisation is putting in place a major recycling initiative which means that desk bins will be removed from all offices with a "central" recycling station in each office for paper, print cartridges, plastics etc and a general "landfill" receptacle. Great idea I hear you say, but the formal complaint I have received outlines that tissues used to blow noses etc now have nowhere to be stored at point of use! Staff are therefore likley to store them on their desks or as practice has confirmed from a trial, use a plastic bag to collect them together and taking to the landfill area at points during the day. The fear is that this practice is encouraging the spread of infection around offices and especially at the recycling points. The concerned member of staff believes this will lead to increased absence and presents a disproportionate risk for certain groups of vulnerable staff. I have my opinions on this, and have a draft response ready to go, my colleagues across the organisation share my thoughts, but just wondered what the collective minds of IOSH members migh think.

At my last place we got rid of the bins to a multitude of complaints. Tissues was one of the issues raised. The only teething problem we had was emptying the general waste bin, once that was sorted there were no issues. The complaints stopped dead in their tracks. As with Safety Smurf, no issues with time lost to communicable diseases! I too think this person is on a fishing expedition.

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Just because there has not been a recognisable "rise" in sickness absence levels does not mean that good hygiene practice should not be followed! Refer to NHS gudiance on preventing seasonal flu. http://www.nhs.uk/Condit...lu/Pages/Prevention.aspx Preventing the spread of germs is the most effective way to slow the spread of flu. Good hygiene Always: •ensure you wash your hands regularly with soap and water, •clean surfaces regularly to get rid of germs, •use tissues to cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, and •put used tissues in a bin as soon as possible. Regarding protecting cleaners, they are supposed to have systems in place for preventing/minimising contact. http://www.nhs.uk/Condit...on/Pages/Prevention.aspx

We went down this route in my work a couple of years ago. The black bag waste was a bit of a concern at first but it was solved by people getting up of their seats and walking (a strange concept) to the bin and putting their rubbish into it. If you blow your nose walk to the bin and bin it. No problems have been encountered in my workplace apart from manual handling issues which resulted in a couple more recycle bins going in place. Son of Skywalker

A case of; "Get up off of your seat"!" ;-)

quote=Moderator 2]Please can we remind forum users <b>not use four letter words</b>, swear words, or other words of similar ilk. Using asterisks, or substituting other non-alphabetical characters does not render them acceptable. Moderating team