Hazard Guidelines

Sharps and Needlestick Injuries

• Overview
• Guidelines
• Responsibilities
• Contact
• Resources

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Overview

Special care should be taken during biological procedures to prevent injuries occurring while handling sharps such as needles, scalpels and stitch cutters.

Accidents resulting from the handling and disposing of sharps during such procedures potentially involve a high risk of exposure to blood-borne infections such as Hepatitis B & C, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

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Guidelines

See also the sections on Communicable Diseases, the UTS Communicable Diseases Policy (PDF document, 117 kb) and the Vaccination Guidelines.

In order to minimise the risk of injury associated with the handling of sharps, it is essential that:

• safe work practices are adopted (i.e. standard precautions), including providing approved receptacles for disposal at the point of use, and
• immunisation, information and training is provided to staff and students working in high risk areas.

All needlestick and other sharps injuries must be immediately reported to the supervisor of the work area.

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Responsibilities

Supervisors have a responsibility to ensure that:

• the appropriate intervention is provided, and
• action is taken to prevent the accident from happening again
• any accident involving potential exposure to blood or body fluids is reported to Safety & Wellbeing immediately.

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Contact

For further information on the prevention of needlestick injuries or information on what to do in the event of a sharps or needlestick injury, contact Safety & Wellbeing on extension 1326.

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Resources