Sharps Container

[Waydwnsouth1]

Very simple question here. For those who take a regular injection do you put the used needle in the sharps container with the needle cover on or off? I ask this question, now don't laugh, because I took my dog to the vet this morning and there needles had the covers on. The nurse said they leave theirs on because the company that picks their waste up dumps them in a plastic bag so it is just safer.

[Bob698]

I put the cover back on and also use the Sharps for my vials and caps. The theory being that I wouldn't want anyone exposed to a DMD unless they needed it.
Once upon a time I had experience in Hazmat stuff and I also came from a state that pioneered a lot of the recycle/waste guidelines.

[Spydre]

When I was on Avonex, I always put the cover back on. I really didn't think about putting the cover back on with the Copaxone, because with the way the autoject works, it takes the cap off in a seperate process....I didn't think about putting the cap back on - when you are done with the autoject you just dump the needle in the sharps container. But I noticed when I got my immunizations at my doctor's office the nurse put the caps on the needles before she put them in the container, too.

[jessiesmom]

Needle disposal

Interesting question. I have been taking Rebif for 5 years. Never once have I put the cap back on the needle after the injection. I just toss the syringe directly into my Sharps container. When the container is full I lock it closed and take it to the disposal site.

[Sir-Voor]

Needle cover off.

I have placed my (sharps/Tide laundry detergent 100 fl oz bottle) and waste basket by my night stand and basket of alcohol pads on my night stand.

With this setup I put a syringe on my night stand when I go to bed at night, and can inject in the morning placing the cover in the waste basket and syringe in the sharps/Tide bottle, once the syringe is in a sharps there no reason for anyone to get stuck.
Plus I think the odds of sticking yourself when recapping, wound be higher then what I’m comfortable with.

Think your vet need to invest in a better service/system.

[heliotrope]

Nurses (and vets) because they're also handling something that has gone into someone else's skin. If you stick yourself with your own needle, you'll hurt yourself, but you usually can't transfer disease.

[Lendi]

Like Sir-voor I'm pretty sure I would have ended up sticking myself. Due to tremors or whatever I'm a bit of a klutz. I always dumped the syringe out of my auto eject straight into the container. Seeing the needle before or after my injection was really more than I wanted to deal with any more than I had to. I did use a regular sharps container or a heavy laundry container, though. Not a light plastic container like a milk carton.

[twisterred]

BD Clip is the way to go!

I used to leave the cap on the used needle when I placed it in a Sharps container.

However, I learned that a BD Clip is awesome!
It is no bigger than a small stapler, so it doesn't take up any room.
It snips off the sharp needle, which gets stored in the clip itself.

The clip safely holds many, many snipped needles.
Copaxone needles aren't too big and so far, my clip has lasted over a year.
Two years is about average for once a day injections using a Copaxone sized needle as I understand.

I guess it is well known in Diabetic circles, too.
http://www.amazon.com/Bd-Needle-Clip.../dp/B001IKKHYA

[Bob698]

Thanks for the link.
I've been looking for a clipper locally but had no luck.

[apple19]

When I first started with Copaxone I put my syringe in the Sharps container with the cap off. When I finished with the container I sealed completely with tape.

Now I use the BD Safe-Clip which snips the needle off the syringe. It holds about 1500 needles.

[Lilamz83]

I work with needles

I work surrounded by needles and our protocol is that only the professional that is administering the drug should recap the needle as they are responsible for it, this means that our nurses don't do it and are therefore not at risk of a needle stick injury

However when I had my training for betaferon I instinctively recapped the needle and was told off by the nurse for doing it. She said there was no need and I was putting my self at risk of a needle stick injury.

I would say in a professional environment recapping is improtant from an infection control point of view but like me, if your keeping your sharps bin out of reach from others and children it's safer for you to not recap the needle

- RRMS - diagnosed 2008 - started Betaferon 1 week ago.

[toot2818]

re-capping

I have never given it a thought. I am on copaxone and I use autoject, drop the cover in the trash basket with the plastice container that syringe comes in.

The pharmary where I take the full sharps container once suggested to just remove the needle from the syringe. That was too hard. I'll have to check out the BD clipper.

Thanks for the post

Toot

[BJG55]

BD clippers

Iuse the BD clippers, too. After clipping off the needle, you can throw the syringe in the trash (at least that was what I was told)!

You can buy the clippers from Amazon. Also, I saw them at my local Walgreen's.

[lac4x9]

I asked my mother, who has been a nurse for over 20 years, what hospital protocol is. She says that since recapping the needle can cause you to stick yourself, it's safer just to drop it in the container with the cap off, and that's what they were trained to do.

[Leah27]

Bob- just ask your pharmacist if they can order the BD needle clipper for you- most pharmacists can special order things like that and have it in the next business day!
Leah