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Community Sharps Disposal Program in Council Bluffs, Iowa

2002; Elsevier BV; Volume: 42; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1331/1086-5802.42.0.s117.dierks

2543-0947

Donn Dierks, Dick Miller,

Healthcare and Environmental Waste Management

An alarming increase in needle sightings and six needle-stick injuries in autumn 1991 and spring 1992 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, led its contracted solid waste handling company, Browning Ferris Industries, Inc. (BFI), to seek help from the Council Bluffs Health Department (CBHD). BFI requested that CBHD establish a community sharps disposal program to reduce the number of used needles, syringes, and other sharps (hereafter referred to as “syringes”) entering the residential solid waste stream. In collaboration with BFI and local pharmacies, and with financial support from a local foundation, the Dodge Foundation, CBHD designed and implemented the Council Bluffs Sharps Disposal Program. Initiated in May 1992, the program distributed free of charge, wide-mouth, 1-gallon plastic bottles with screw-on lids to be used as containers for used syringes. Initially, new containers were distributed to the local pharmacies by health department employees. Local pharmacies and the CBHD provided the containers to patients whose medical care required injections. A pamphlet describing the program was given to anyone receiving a container. When a container was filled, residents were to return it, in exchange for a new container, to the CBHD office or to one of several participating local pharmacies. CBHD collected filled containers from pharmacies and consolidated the containers for pickup by a medical waste transportation company (Bio-Hazardous). BFI, the city’s solid waste collection contractor at that time, paid the costs of transporting and treating the syringes as infectious waste. Pharmacy-Based Program