Working with biohazards presents a unique set of risks for everyone involved. Biohazardous materials are dangerous to other organisms and include pathogens, blood, body tissues, feces, vomit or other bodily fluids.
These materials can cause illness or death, so it’s crucial to have the tools to clean up these risky messes in the event of a spill. It’s also essential that people who work with or around biohazardous materials have a spill kit on hand and understand safety protocols and the biohazard spill kit instructions.
What Is a Biohazard Kit?
A biohazard kit provides resources to mitigate the consequences of a spill of hazardous materials. In the event of a biological spill, workers use a biohazard kit to prevent the biohazards from contaminating the area or sickening people.
Use Hazmat Labels to Properly Mark Hazardous MaterialsIf your company is at risk for biohazard spills, it is necessary to have a properly stocked kit available and ensure that your employees understand the procedures surrounding the kit’s use.
What’s in a Kit?
Each biohazard spill kit comes with a certain number of items to help keep the person cleaning the spill safe while limiting the contaminated area.
What goes in a biohazard bag depends on the industry it is meant for. Many industries that use these types of kits are in the medical field, as this industry commonly deals with bodily fluids and pathogens.
Here are some of the items that you can expect to find in your biohazard spill kit and details about how to use them:
Personal protective equipment helps you remain safe while you clean up hazardous situations. PPE includes gloves, masks, face shields, gowns and booties.
These materials soak up the dangerous messes and come in an array of forms, including powders and mats.
Sanitizing agents include wipes and bleach and should be packaged with a bucket to dilute the bleach and a tool to apply the agent.
Some spills require you to pick up objects without using your hands, even if you’re wearing gloves. Some biohazard kits include forceps or tongs to move items around without directly touching them.
These bags come in a variety of sizes to hold hazardous materials, and they can be sealed so that no contaminants get out.
Hazmat labels can be used to warn other people who will handle the package about the hazardous material inside. Signs help notify other people in the area of the spill.
In the workplace, there are different levels of danger in a situation that warrants a biohazard spill kit. The CDC’s quick-learn lesson on biosafety levels is a useful resource for workplaces with potentially hazardous biological agents in the vicinity.
Custom Corrugated Boxes Can Be Made to Fit Your SpecificationsA publication from OSHA on biohazard labeling is required reading for all who work in environments with biohazardous agents, in order to minimize confusion that can lead to dangerous situations.
How Do I Use a Biohazard Spill Kit?
Your employer should use proper hazmat labels to promote employee safety. Accidents happen, and every precaution should be taken to ensure that, if an accident does occur, it is manageable.
Here are the steps to take in the event of a biohazard spill:
Take time to tell your supervisor or others working in the area of the spill. Also, put a label on the door to signify to everyone that a spill has happened.
To protect yourself from biohazards, put on the gown, face covering, goggles, gloves and booties.
Let aerosols settle by waiting 20 minutes before reentering the area to clean up the spill. Although some biohazards like bodily fluids aren’t airborne, it’s better to be safe.
Using forceps or tongs if necessary, grab any reusable items like unbroken beakers and put them aside for sterilization. Any broken items should be carefully removed and disposed of properly.
Put the sorbent material suitable for the spill over the area and wait the requisite amount of time before scooping and the spill and sealing the spill-soaked sorbent in a biohazard pouch.
After the spill has been appropriately cleaned and disposed of, make sure to reorder the necessary items to make the kit complete again.
The Last Word
Biohazard spills can happen, especially in industries that often work with bodily fluids. The right tools and training can keep your employees and others in the area safe in the event of a spill. Keep a complete biohazard spill kit on hand to warn others of the spill, protect the employee cleaning up and dispose of all the materials involved.
