Work surfaces must be decontaminated daily and immediately following spills.  This will reduce the spread of contamination to one's person and at the same time reduce the potential for contaminating one's own or someone else's experiment or process.

Waste

All biological waste and contaminates equipment should be decontaminated or inactivated prior to disposal or reuse.  This is especially true if known pathogens are involved. 

Contaminated materials such as culture flasks, glassware, laboratory equipment, etc., should be decontaminated before washing, reuse, or disposal. 

This will help protect personnel not directly associated with the laboratory activity, (e.g., glassware workers, janitors, repair personnel, animal care technical support, etc.). 

Such personnel should never be exposed to contaminated materials without first being informed and thoroughly trained.

Hypodermic needles and syringes.

Care should be exercised whenever hypodermic needles and syringes are used.

Hypodermic needles and syringes should only be used for the parenteral injection or aspiration of fluids.  Only needle-locking syringes or units where the needle is an integral part of the syringe should be used. 

Syringes and needles are discarded directly into a puncture-resistant container immediately after use; they are not clipped and needles are not resheathed.

The contents of the puncture-resistant container should be chemically inactivated and/or autoclaved prior to disposal.  A recent case reported of a laboratory- acquired gonococcal infection describes an accident which could have been avoided if needle-locking syringes had been used. 

Contaminated broken glass also presents a hazard and must be decontaminated and disposed of properly.  Once contaminated needles or other sharps are decontaminated, the physical hazard they present is still real and should be addressed accordingly.

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