Disposing of Gloves

Disposing of gloves. Many personal protective equipment (PPE) in the healthcare industry is contaminated with infectious bodily fluids, particularly when it comes to the use of  protective gloves. It is important for anyone who works with these items to know the proper way to dispose of them. You should take precautions when handling most PPE items such as gloves and masks. When you are finished wearing these items, the glove should removed and disposed of properly. Disposing of gloves in such a way that prevents other people from contacting the virus can be challenging. If gloves are disposed of improperly, they can become contaminated with infectious agents and lead to the contamination of surfaces and items. Gloves should be double-bagged with other waste, and liquid from them should also be contained properly. Gloves should be stored in a safe, airtight container and sent to a hazardous waste facility.One problem still exists, however, in that the outside glove has been touched on the inside surface, and it is highly possible to pass the virus through this route. To deal with this situation, flexible vinyl gloves are available from companies such as Ansell. These gloves fit closely, and can be pulled off leaving them inside out, so that the wearer need not touch the outside of both gloves.

Handling Used Masks

If you do not work in healthcare, it isn’t very difficult to avoid contaminated masks—unless you have relatives working as healthcare professionals or have friends who would really like to share their used Masks. Like said above, do not wear the mask longer than what is advised on its packaging. Hand wash your reusable masks as often as possible using hot water with soap. Be careful when washing so you wont be exposed to any infection. At the end of the day, remember that it is better to be safe than sorry.People use different masks. It is not uncommon to find used surgical masks in the trash or in the toilet bowls. Although this does not mean that these were the ones used by the patient, it is still a possibility. It is advisable for people who do not work in healthcare to wear reusable cloth masks. This ensures that frontline workers have access to surgical or N95 masks. […].

Special Considerations for Infected Persons

The CDC recommends all used PPE (gloves, gowns and eye-protection) be double-bagged in black bags in accordance with your municipal solid waste handling procedures. The double bagging should include tape over the top to ensure it is fully sealed. In addition, it is generally a good idea to hold any PPE materials for 24 to 72 hours before disposal into a medical waste container. This allows any body fluids that may have escaped the PPE during use to dry out and prevents spreading this fluid into the environment or onto other individuals. Never put PPE directly into a medical waste container! Some facilities choose to treat these materials as biohazardous and incinerate them. This would also be acceptable for CVID-19 PPE. PPE for patients is no different from PPE for medical staff. The precautions are the same with few exceptions detected case is difficult to detect as COVID-19, unlike tuberculosis or HIV that are infectious and you can easily identify they are infected. COVID-19 appears as a general cold caused by an upper respiratory infection. Its only after a patient shows symptoms that the doctor will be able to run tests and make a detection. Detection of infection in medical staff will be almost impossible because the method of transmission of COVID-19 can only occur through direct contact; may possess protection and equipment but not to become infected means they do not have contact.If you have contracted the influenza-like illness, you should follow all the same procedures and precautions listed above with two exceptions. The first is that used PPE should not be directly disposed of into trash cans or dumpsters. Double-bagging used PPE in black bags will ensure that these do not contaminate other persons. The second is to hold these black bin bags for 24-72 hours.Once the PPE is removed, it should be double-bagged and held in a black trash bag. This will prevent you from accidentally infecting others. Remember to wash your hands thoroughly at all times and to always keep these PPE items stored in secondary containers. After 24 to 72 hours have elapsed, the bin bagged PPE can be placed in the regular trash.These additional precautions are to guard against spreading the virus to anyone else should you accidentally expose an open wound on another person. These black bags can be disposed in the regular trash receptacle with other garbage (including biohazards).

Why Disposal and Not Recycling?

Nowadays, education in the importance of recycling is up and wide-spread, but there are some things recycling facilities don’t want handled in their facilities.   Mirroring this is an increasing awareness of the dangers of disposing of PPE as ‘household’ waste. The problem is not just what happens to the PPE, it’s also the difficulty differentiating it from regular household trash when it’s mixed.   When we were growing up we didn’t know any better - we weren’t educated in the use and disposal on PPE, and often got yelled at for messing around with any kind of mask that came to hand. Of course in retrospect it was incredibly stupid behaviour - not knowing how hard it can be to get a mask on. Lets first understand why disposal and not recycling. The unfortunate truth is that even Ebola may persist on a plastic glove for 3 months, and C Diff can live on paper for 14 days. Many infections can be transmitted by tiny organisms such as tuberculosis bacteria and viruses that are spread by touch. Even something as simple as a piece of dirt or grit could pose a risk to someone who has been handling contaminated waste like PPE after use.- Disposal: PPE should be disposed of in a separate hygienic bin and NOT placed into your cyclone bin. Mask / Gloves – drop in the rubbish bin if no public bins are available. Meet approved guidelines, manufacturers waste disposal instructions, local/state/territory environmental regulations.Why Dispose PPE and Not Recycle it? I’m sure most of us don’t like to see good stuff go to waste, however there are a couple important reasons that we recommend disposing PPE rather than recycling it:. The reason why i hear so many people say they dont dispose of their PPE is because they were not aware that its not right to do so. They need to be made aware of this.