Safety first
Safe disposal of used disposable syringes
Every year employees in the health care sector all over the world suffer approx. 2 million needlestick injuries with the risk of hepatitis and HI virus infection. For this reason, apart from safety during the processing of pre-filled disposable syringes in the aseptic work area, the safety in handling the syringes after the injection by doctors, hospital personnel or after self-medication comes increasingly to the fore. In the meantime several packaging material manufacturers offer methods for precluding injuries caused by used syringes.
Disposal of used syringes with exposed needles bears a high risk. Even if utmost care is taken, needlestick injuries with the inherent risk of infection cannot be ruled out. At present the safest solution is applying a needlestick safety guard (Safety Device) onto the disposable syringe, which surrounds the needle as a protective sleeve after injection - either automatically or after manual activation. Depending on the system, this safety mechanism is triggered automatically during administration of the injection by pushing the plunger rod forward to its final position (passive system). If the system has to be triggered actively, the safety mechanism must be activated after the injection by pressing the plunger rod once more manually.
As alternative to the safety guard, the syringes can be applied with needle-traps. After injection a plastic part fixed to the label is pressed manually onto the needle. The special snap-in mechanism of the plastic part encompasses the needle up to its tip and, thus, prevents needlestick injuries. Unlike the passive needle safety system with the safety guard, the person administering the injection must press the needle manually into the plastic part with the snap-in mechanism after injection. Only then is the needle guard active and the risk of injury for persons touching these syringes is excluded.
For both methods, Bausch+Ströbel offers well-tried pharmaceutical processing systems for syringe labeling machines. Depending on the containers to be processed, these machines have an output of up to 24,000 containers/hour in in-line operation.
When applying needle traps - label and needle guard are a unit - only the labeling machine, i.e. especially the dispenser area, needs to be modified. When applying safety guards a separate unit with corresponding feed device for the plastic parts is required. As no assembly unit is required when applying needle traps, this procedure costs less than the procedure for assembly of safety guards, which, however, offer a higher safety standard.
