Genentech: Sharps Disposal

Improper disposal of needles and different medical sharps could cause needle-stick accidents, especially for garbage collectors. Please throw your used needles away safely. Needles, sharps or sharps containers should not be included in your family trash. Assortment programs for these things can be found in lots of locations throughout the country. Use the links under to find the location closest to you.

The word "sharps" refers to any sort of waste that can pierce or puncture the skin. Not necessarily referring to an object designed for that objective, many on a regular basis household objects could be outlined as sharps; they may cause injuries if they are thrown out with regular waste. Some common items which are classified as sharps container are:

- The utmost sensitivity security tray is activated by the weight of the waste with a single swing motion.
- The security-tilt mechanism releases the waste safely into the collector away from the user.
- The gravity balanced mechanism of the tray resets to an open safe-disposal place after every use till the container is full.
- When static or in motion, the swing-action security tray successfully conceals the aperture of the container to ensure no arms ever come into contact with contaminated sharps.

Concern for the potential health hazards of medical wastes grew in the 1980s after medical wastes have been washing up on several east coast beaches. This prompted Congress to enact The MWTA of 1988. The MWTA was a two-yr federal program through which EPA was required to promulgate laws on management of medical waste. The Company did so on March 24, 1989. The regulations for this two 12 months program went into impact on June 24, 1989 in 4 states - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. The laws expired on June 21, 1991.