POST 00794E : UNIVERSAL SAFETY BOX
30 May 2005
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Franck Bouvet (mailto:[email protected]) from France, is pleading
below for a universal safety box. (original contribution in French)
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Hello,
First: Things to reflect upon about sharp waste management:
Health institutions have to manage an impressive variety of sharp waste. To
consider just the most common and most dangerous ones, i.e. needles, there
are:
* Disposable syringes;
* Auto-Destruct (AD) syringes;
* Blood transfusion kits that contain needles glued to tubes;
* Catheter or fine butterfly needles;
* Vacutainer needles directly mounted on tubes.
We move further and further towards recycling of plastic parts. Strategies
are therefore developed to separate needles from syringes and there is an
unlimited quantity of safety boxes. If I am not mistaken, there is no
universal safety box used by nurses for all sharp wastes. For example,
‘needle cutters’ can be used for AD syringes, eventually disposable
syringes and even for transfusion kit, but are not suitable for butterfly
needles or vacutainers. Safety boxes for vacutainers (on which one can
block the needle and with a quarter-turn, remove it) are usable for
vacutainers or disposable syringes, but not for AD syringes, transfusion
kits or butterfly needles, ‘needle lyzers’ can not be used for
vacutainers…etc.
The heterogeneity of safety boxes is mainly due to the fact that vertical
programmes are developed according to specific needs and there is no
lateral approach: immunization programmes with AD syringes, transfusion
safety programmes with vacutainers, sectoral support programmes for the
remaining, etc… The consequences of all this is that countries can not
implement a simple safety boxes supply policies (which remains
compartmented according to programmes) and where health personnel get a
little bit confused (just like consultants).
Second: Towards a universal safety box
The very lastest safety box is the plastic one developed by BD and which
works a bit on the principle of the stapler. This safety box is not
functional for butterfly needles and can not be used safely for
vacutainers. Looking closely at existing models, a technical solution could
be proposed regarding the needle dropping slit, in order to combine at the
same time:
1. the cutting of needles (AD syringes et kits de transfusion)
2. the removal by a quarter turn (for disposable syringes and vacutainers)
3. Again the cutting for butterfly needles.
Without underestimating the technical and financial constraints for the
production of a multi-purpose universal security box, international
organizations such as WHO and UNICEF would be in a better position to
encourage the development of such a safety box, which could be used for all
types of sharp wastes. With detailed and clear specifications, a company
should be able to meet the challenge and this would solve quite many
headaches afflicting us...
Emergence-Environmental Health
Franck Bouvet
France
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