Survey of occupational exposure of waste industry workers to infectious waste in Washington State

We surveyed 940 Washington state waste industry workers to evaluate occupational exposure to potentially infectious materials (response rate 47 percent). Only 26 percent were trained specifically to deal with safety hazards associated with medical waste. For the year preceding the survey, 50 percent of respondents reported having received cuts and scratches on the job, 22 percent reported direct contact with waste blood on their clothing or shoes, 8 percent had blood exposure on their skin, 3 percent blood exposure on their face or eyes, and 6 percent occupational hypodermic needlestick injuries (10 percent among waste collectors.