Chemotherapy is a part of cancer treatment with several toxins being injected into the body to get rid of cancerous cells. Sure, it sounds great on principle but the associated side effects are too great to be ignored. Moreover, healthy individuals may contaminate themselves inadvertently with poisonous material in the process of caring for the patient too. People need to be extremely careful when working or visiting such a patient. Elimination of waste after chemo is of paramount importance and an important way to ensure health and safety inside a facility that is associated with chemotherapeutic treatment.
While there are bound to be several individuals entrusted with cleaning up the room as well as the surroundings after a chemotherapy session, the concerned personnel must be knowledgeable about the rights and wrongs too. Sadly, the procedure is too complicated to be mastered within minutes. It requires a specialized clean-up with the harmful wastes segregated in separate color-coded containers and disposed of according to the established safety regulations.
What are Chemotherapy Wastes?
The drugs that were not used during chemotherapy for various reasons must be removed from the facility if the professional is unable to reuse them. Likewise, the containers holding such drugs, especially vials, bottles, or any other container must be discarded properly as well. The IV tubing, gowns, syringes, gloves, rubber sheets, and pads used by the patient during and immediately after the procedure are regarded to be unsafe and need to be eliminated permanently.
Classification of Chemo Wastes
Segregating the wastes after chemotherapy and disposing of them according to the norms is essential for several reasons. Most facilities make sure to hire the services of a reputed clean-up company that specializes in the disposal of chemotherapy wastes. Some of the wastes that need to be separated and retained in special color-coded containers for safe removal from the premises include:-
Hazardous Wastes– The products and/or material can be termed hazardous due to the properties of such wastes. Any drugs that are included in the F or K list of waste products are also believed to e detrimental to health. Other wastes in the P or Q list are commercial products that affect health adversely. There are 9 different drugs used for chemotherapy that is considered to be extremely hazardous.
Bulk wastes– Any article that holds more than a residual amount of the chemotherapy drug is regarded to be a bulk waste. The cleanup crew would be extremely fastidious about handling the following as they are capable of spreading contamination:
- Devices used to dispense cytotoxic drugs
- IV bags containing a substantial amount of the drug
- PPE materials that were used during chemotherapy
- Materials used to clean up spills
Trace Wastes– Non infectious wastes that have been handled with hazardous wastes are treated as trace wastes following chemotherapy.
- All items containing a minimum amount of chemotherapy drugs
- PPE kits and disposable items used during the process when there had been no spills, leaks, or dripping of the drugs
Elimination of waste after chemo is a specialized process and must be done by trained professionals to ensure 100% safety within the facility.
