When I saw this piece online I was horrified and felt physically ill.
The story is about Barton, a garbage collector, who unfortunately had to manually empty the wheelie bins from a medical clinic.
In the process:
“an improperly secured bin spilled up to two litres of medical waste – including blood, human biopsies and chemotherapy chemicals – over Mr Wallis as he tried to lift it onto the truck.”
Horrifying!
Worse still – Barton swallowed some of the waste.
What a horrible horrible situation to find yourself in. This poor man.
This is the stuff of nightmares.
As someone working every day in this industry and fully aware of the dangers biohazards pose, I am horrified this incident could have occured. I’m not surprised at all Barton is reporting “depression, anxiety and mood swings.” I can’t imagine the horrors and fears that would be charging through his mind.
No matter what the role - especially emptying clinical waste – employers must provide basic safe working conditions.
Categories: Neglect, Public health risk
|
I was shocked to see in the Daily Telegraph a photo of a corner take-away in Kings Cross where there had been a stabbing on the early hours of Sunday morning: Booze, brawls and blood … what has Sydney come to?
It wasn’t the violence I was shocked at. It was the casual attitude towards the very real danger. Biohazards.
Blood splatter over food equals danger any time. This is a serious public health incident. Everyone in that shop have been put at risk. This incident should have CLOSED this take away shop immediately.
Why wasn’t it?
The paper describes the scene: “BLOOD covers the floor and drips down the counter of this Kings Cross takeaway…”
How can a take away shop be selling food to the general public when half of the counter and flooring is covered in fresh BLOOD?!
Who cleaned this up ?
It wasn’t Clean Queens.
Tuesday morning 3 March:
I went back to the shop today with one of my employees. We stood out the front of this shop and could both clearly see thick blood on the grout of the tiles.
Categories: Public health risk
|
