Safety Never Takes a Vacation

 

Terry Jo Gile, MT(ASCP)MA Ed

the Safety Lady®

 

 

Safety never takes a vacation.  It is an integral part of the laboratory’s operations but one we often take for granted.  For example, do you wear gloves when you perform you laboratory testing?  Of course, you reply, we’ve been doing that for years.  But do you remember that the gloves must be pulled on over the outside of the lab coat cuff so there is no exposed skin?  Do you remove them aseptically when you take them off?  Do you take them off before you remove you lab coat?  This may sound routine to some but I can assure you that many laboratorians have no idea about the proper lab safety etiquette that keeps them from harm.

 

Lab coats are another safety issue.  They should be knee length and have arms that are long enough for even the tallest person.  Employees wear lab coats but when the person has to reach for something on a high shelf the sleeve pulls back from the gloves and skin is exposed.  And then they neglect to pull the sleeve down and adjust the gloves so they are once again over the cuff.  If the sleeves were long enough in the first place, this wouldn’t be an issue.  Antistatic buildup with polyester fabric is another problem for lab coats.  Be sure your coats have an antistatic thread within the fabric to prevent static electricity from building and potentially causing equipment or computer failure due to electrical discharge.  This includes disposable as well as reusable coats.

 

Safety needles have been required since 2001.  The safety feature is there to protect employees from needlesticks.  Do you activate the safety feature after you remove the needle from the patient?  OSHA has been known to check sharps containers and count the number of inactivated safety needles and fine facilities up to $2,000 per inactivated needle.  That can get very costly in a short period of time. 

 

Blood culture bottles are another cause for concern.  Bottles have always been made of glass and can break or crack causing exposure at any number of points along the process.  In the past few years, plastic bottles have become a source of safety as well as being cost effective both up stream with ergonomic issues such as weight to move and lift  and downstream with the cost of disposal which is also charged by weight. 

 

Then there is the matter of biohazard waste.  Are you putting it into a bag with the biohazard symbol?  Do you use a reusable or disposable system?  Do the containers have a lid on them?  Some counties require that red bag waste containers have the lids on them at all times except when placing items into the containers.  Waste management is not only the responsibility of the laboratory but it often impacts other departments such as housekeeping and facilities engineering and it must comply with local and state regulations.  The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) is reworking its GP5 document on Waste Management and they hope to have a revised standard that is comprehensive and in line with current practices and regulations within 18 months.

 

Always utilize the latest safety measures in your laboratory to protect employees from harm.  Remember, safety never takes a vacation.