Sharps Containers..how many?
I haven't been able to find much regulatory guidance speaking towards how many sharps containers a facility would need. I thinking the rational approach is to have as many as you need. If they're overflowing often then they would need to be inspected more frequently and if there's area's of the facility that people are expressing an increased presence for them, then there's your feed back to put some more in. Does that seem appropriate? I think if we put one in every single bathroom in our facility it might be overkill, but I'm not certain.
I appreciate any feedback on what approaches-practices have worked well for others.
Comments (11)
The number of sharps containers provided at your facility needs to be based on your site-specific risk assessment. Why do you need sharps containers? Do you have known diabetics that utilize insulin needles while at work? If you had one employee that would utilize the sharps container, then one sharps container would probably be suffucient (depending on the size of your facility).
Drew gave you about as good advice as anything I can think of that is required in writing by anyone (like OHSA or ANSI). It all really depends on your risk assessments.
As a H&S and HR pro I always put sharp's containers:
#1 First Aid Rooms or other places used by people like your First Responders, First Aid employees, and visiting medical professionals (like Occ Nurses, PAs, MDs, DOs, and sometimes DCs). We encouraged employees that were diabetic or needed to give themselves injections of any kind to use our First Aid Rooms for privacy. A First Responder, Supervisor, or FA employee had the keys. We also kept all our bandages, bandades, and other FA supplies there if needed.
#2 At least one for every bathroom
#3 Work Areas where sharps were used in the manufacturing or logistics areas. For example our Receiving employees used box cutters (A9 cut-resistant gloves). They went through blades left and right and when changed were required to use sharps containers for used blade disposal.
#4 AS an HR Manager I knew most of our employees that were diabetic or had other medical conditions that may require injections. If I knew I had several of those employees in an area I would put a sharp's container in their work area.
#5 I would keep small sharp's containers in our Emergency First Aid/Responder Kits in the Supervisors Offices.
I do not think you can have too many sharps containers!
This has been an enlightening conversation for me. So Tom, you woke me up to the idea of our blades needing proper disposal protection. Upon having a conversation with our Warehouse staff, much to my delight we already had the blade disposal containers Drew was referencing.
Thanks again!
