National Norms and Standards relating to Environmental Health

• Elbow length heavy duty gloves, closed safety shoes, full overalls, heavy dutyapron, safety glasses and respirators.• Disinfectant;• Absorbent material,• Brooms, dustpans and shovels,• Health care risk waste containers and heavy duty plastic bags Procedures for the protection of the public and other personnel; Procedures for the containment and disposal of different types of waste; Health and safety policy with proof that it has been communicated to all employees; Means to notify the infection control nurse in case of accidental needle stick injuries andother relevant authorities where necessary; Arrangement of medical examination o for all affected personnel, including preventativetreatment. Non compliant procedures and appropriate corrective actions to be taken.• Record keeping for monitoring waste management contractors, detailing proof of proper treatment,destruction and disposal of the health care risk waste by the waste management contractor.• Procedures for disinfection of reusable health care risk waste containers which shall include: responsible person for disinfecting the reusable health care risk waste container; approved testing methodologies for relevant biological or other indicators relating to adequatedisinfection of a health care risk waste reusable container; monitoring of the disinfection by responsible person for disinfecting the reusable health carerisk waste container; all pertinent operating procedures; frequency of testing; the competent person to determine the sampling area or location of the reusable health carerisk waste container; adequate disinfection of reusable health care risk waste containers must be tested anddocumented based on swap tests or similar sampling procedures; the accredited laboratory to process the samples for bacterial and fungal organisms; Quarterly reports of the level of disinfection achieved by the facility must be compiled by theresponsible person for disinfecting the reusable health care risk waste container; Laboratory results must be kept on record or a period of 3 years.9.2 HEALTH CARE RISK WASTE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL BY CONTRACTORSAn EHP must monitor the collection and disposal of HCRW to ensure that:a) Only permitted waste management contractors must be contracted to render treatment and disposalservices for the health care facility;b) An EHP should monitor that the contracted service provider for the collection is disposal of HCRWadheres to the terms of the contract with the facility.c) Contractual requirements between the health care facility and the waste management contractormust include: Description of waste streams and volume of waste to be collected for treatment and disposal; Treatment and disposal processes to be used.; Verification of the physical condition of the health care risk waste packages received, The responsibility to sort, count and collect the health care risk waste packages. A method to account for different health care risk waste units collected by the wastemanagement contractor, Collection schedule; Modes of transportation to be used; Health and safety measures to be implemented, including emergency response policy andstrategy; Proof of training for all workers in direct contact with health care risk waste during collectionand disposal; Transitional arrangements during mobilization, termination of services and interfaces withcurrent waste management contractor and the succeeding waste management contractor;DOH. Norms and standards for environmental health in South Africa Feb 2013 125