GB2424414A

GB2424414A - Sharps disposal system and container

Info

Publication number: GB2424414A
Application number: GB0505833A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Stuart Henshaw
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-03-22
Filing date: 2005-03-22
Publication date: 2006-09-27
Also published as: GB0505833D0

Abstract

A moulded plastic safety sharps container 10 capable of becoming unopenable after closure, comprises a pouch portion 12 and a lid 26. The top opening 14 of the pouch portion has peripheral first and second lip flanges 16, 18 and a closure shoulder 20 beneath the second flange. An extension of the shoulder has an integrally formed clip 22 from which extends a living hinge 24 that supports the lid. The lid has catch 30 comprising catch elements 32, 34 that correspond and engage with the lip flanges, as well as a base 28 that abuts against the shoulder 20 the lid is fully closed on the pouch. Abutment of shoulder 20 and base 28 prevents to a great extent the use of tools to force the catch and the flanges out of engagement. The container can be provided with a window (60, Fig.4), and also with an optical code, such as a bar code (52, fig.3), or a readable chip (54, Fig.4), to improve traceability. A plurality of these containers can be stored on a carriage strip (80, Fig.5), comprising apertures defined by bridges 84, wherein the clips 22 of the containers can be snugly fitted.

Description

* 2424414 Sharps disposal system and container The present invention

relates to a system for the safe disposal of needles employed by drug addicts in the course of their habit.

Drug addiction is a problem in many countries around the world. The nonprescribed injection of various drugs, including heroin, is illegal in most, if not all, countries. Despite this, it is a common occurrence and drugs are easily available in many places. Usually, these places are urban areas.

The drugs are dangerous; that is why they are banned. However, their use is not fatal and habitual use *::::* can be, and often is, overcome by users when given the opportunity. But an ancillary problem of drug abuse : * while a user is engaged in their habit, which may have fatal consequences, is the spread of disease caused by the repeated use of needles. Hepatitis and HIV *.S.S.

:. infections are transmitted between drug users by shared * 1 needles. Other infections, including bacterial infections, can be received by reuse by the same person of dirty needles. Unfortunately, drug addicts, in the pursuit of their addiction, are frequently careless of their personal safety and the risks of infection. But the spread of disease has become a bigger problem than the drug abuse itself. Consequently, as well as trying to defeat drug abuse, authorities in different parts of the world sometimes provide "needle exchanges", where clean, sterile needles are made available to drug users.

At least they are then protected from the effects of using dirty needles.

The terms on which drug users are given needles by needle exchanges are not onerous, otherwise they would not bother. On the other hand, they are often not unconditional, either. Although drug users are ordinary people, by their nature they are likely to be unconventional, possibly selfish and, given their use of mind altering drugs, less than thoughtful. On the other hand, they are not altogether unconscious of their own health; they do use needle exchanges. Consequently the spread of disease between drug abusers has been reduced.

Now, however, a different problem has arisen. Drug users frequently do not dispose of their used needles properly. One of the terms usually imposed is that they return used needles to the needle exchange. However, a :.:. 15 failure to return needles is often not penalised. The *...

risk of a drug abuser getting an infection from used needles is usually considered much greater than some : * theoretical risk of improperly disposed needles. Also, a simple problem is that syringes and needles are usually given to the drug users in packs, perhaps of ten I.,' syringes/needles, together with a standard sharps container that is big enough to receive all ten needles.

Sharps containers usually comply with British or other (international) standards and are disposed of by incineration along with their contents. A drug user is expected to return the sharps container when collecting new needles, but there is frequently no check that the number of needles in the container is the same as the number of needles originally given to the user. Indeed, by their nature, sharps containers do not permit counting of their contents.

The result is that needles are sometimes disposed of irresponsibly. Now, innocent members of the public are increasingly at risk of needle-stick injuries from carelessly discarded needles. Stick injuries may themselves be very minor, but drug users still represent a high infection-risk, high infection-rate population.

Consequently, the discarded needles also represent a potentially very serious infection risk to third parties, and perhaps especially children who are most likely to prick themselves when investigating discarded needles and syringes.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system which mitigates these risks by making it easier for drug users to behave responsibly.

:.:: 15 In accordance with the present invention there is SI..

provided a system for reducing the incidence of needle- stick injuries from discarded syringe needles comprising * the step of supplying drug users with clean, sterile syringes and needles, each one in an openable closed, moulded plastics container, which container is capable of S.....

:. unopenable closure by the user after the syringe and needle has been used and returned to the container.

Preferably, said supply is of a plurality of syringes and needles in said containers, each being releasably clipped to a carrier strip.

Preferably, said containers are individually coded and details of the supply is recorded so that returns can be monitored. Also, this has the benefit of enabling the tracing of discarded containers so that users responsible for such discarding can be encouraged to refrain from such discarding in the future. More importantly, however, provided the user disposes of the used needle in the container, and the container is unopenably closed, the risks of needle-stick injuries to third parties is almost entirely eliminated.

Of course, complete elimination of the risk is impossible, because there is no such thing as an unopenable container. However, by the term "unopenable" is meant: not easily openable by normal people without the aid of a tool, and probably not openable at all by children in practical circumstances.

In accordance with a different aspect of this invention, there is provided a sharps container sized to receive a syringe and needle suitable for the intravenous injection of up to 30 ml of liquid, which container :.:. 15 comprises a plastics moulding of a pouch having an * SS a..... opening and a lid to close the opening, said lid having two closure positions with respect to the pouch, in a first of which said lid is openable to gain access to the S..

pouch and in a second of which the lid is unopenable. * 20

By "sharps" container is not meant a container that * necessarily meets British or other standards, since such standards were not written to accommodate the present application. However, it does mean that needles in the container when the container is unopenably closed pose no significant risk of causing needle-stick injuries.

Thus the present invention provides a container that can not only be employed for the initial supply of a syringe and needle, but can also be employed for its safe disposal after use.

Preferably the pouch or lid includes a transparent or translucent panel whereby the contents of the container can be discerned.

Preferably the lid is connected to the pouch by a living hinge integrally moulded with the pouch and lid.

Preferably said openable and unopenable closures of the lid on the pouch comprise snap-engaged interconnections between the two, a first being of minimal interference between the lid and pouch enabling relatively easy disengagement of said first interconnection and a second, further interconnection being of maximal interference between the lid and pouch enabling relatively difficult disengagement of said second interconnection.

Preferably, said pouch and lid are interengaged by *I.e movement towards one another along an axis, one of the opening of said pouch and the lid has first and second flanges around its periphery, said first flange being S..

* nearer the periphery than said second flange and being of different radius with respect to said axis, the other of *SS*5* : the opening of said pouch and the lid having at least a * S first rib around its periphery of a radius with respect to the axis such that engagement of said first rib with said first flange on movement of said lid towards said pouch along said axis results in relatively mild deformation of said first rib and first flange before said first rib snaps behind said first flange to effect said openable closure of the container, and on further movement of the lid towards said pouch, engagement of said first rib with said second flange results in relatively severe deformation of said first rib and second flange before said first rib snaps behind said second flange to effect said unopenable closure of the container.

Preferably, said first and second flanges are on the pouch. Preferably said first and second flanges are external, said rib being internal of the lid. Preferably there are two ribs, a second rib being further from the periphery than said first and engaging said first flange when the first rib engages the second flange, said engagement of the second rib with said first flange resulting in more severe deformation of said first flange and second rib than when said first rib engaged said first flange.

An embodiment of the invention is further described hereinafter, by way of example, with reference to the * accompanying drawings, in which: :.: 15 Figure 1 is a side view of a container in accordance SI..

*i*.' with the present invention; Figure 2 is a top perspective view of the container of Figure 1; * Figure 3 is a bottom perspective view of the container of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a side view, partially in section, of an alternative embodiment of the present invention; and, Figure 5 is a perspective view of a carriage strip holding a plurality of containers of the invention.

In the drawings, a container 10 comprises a moulded pouch 12 constructed from plastics material. The pouch has a top opening 14 having a first peripheral lip flange 16 and a second, larger, lip flange 18 spaced further from the opening 14 than the first lip flange 16. A closure shoulder 20 is provided beneath the second lip flange 18.

An extension of the shoulder 20 has an integrally formed clip 22. Extending from the clip 22 is a living hinge 24 connecting a lid 26 to the pouch 12.

Internally, the lid 26 includes a catch 30 that openably engages with the first lip flange 16. It is substantially deformed, however, along with the lip flange 18, when the two are engaged. Moreover, a base 28 of the lid 26 abuts the shoulder 20 once the catch 30 in the lid 26 engages the second flange 18. When the catch engages the lip flange 18, the interference between them is arranged to be so severe that it is, to all practical purposes, impossible to open the lid from the pouch 12.

Turning to Figure 2, catch 30, like elements 16,18, comprises a first catch element 32 and a second catch element 34. *..s

S *5S*

These catch elements are more visible in the :, embodiment of Figure 4, where they are shown schematically. Lines 40 show the dimensions of the first catch element 32 of the lid 26. The second catch element 34 is inside the dimensions of the lines 40.

On the pouch 12, the first lip flange 16 is marginally outside the first catch element 32. Thus, when the cap 26 is moved to engage with the pouch 12 in the direction of longitudinal axis 50 of the container 10, catch element 32 snaps into engagement with lip flange 16. However, the engagement therebetween is not so severe that the lid 26 cannot relatively easily be prised from the pouch 12 so that access can be had to the contents of the container 10.

However, when the cap 26 is moved further in the direction of the longitudinal axis 50 towards the pouch 12, the first catch element 32 engages with second lip flange 18. Second lip flange 18 extends further, outwardly, than the lip flange 16. At the same time, second catch element 34, which has a smaller internal dimension than the lines 40 defining the internal dimensions of the first catch element 32, snaps into engagement with the first lip flange 16. Indeed, engaging catch 34 with lip 16 involves as much distortion and force as engaging catch 32 with lip 18.

However, in addition to the effectiveness of the inter-engagement of the catches and lips, once the cap is pressed over the lip flanges 16,17 and snapped into engagement beyond, the facing edge 28 of the lid 26 abuts the flange 20. It is therefore almost impossible to insert an instrument to prise outwardly the skirt 42 of *::: the lid 26 to enable the catch elements 32,34 to disengage from the lip flanges 16,18. Therefore, the : security against subsequent opening is almost complete.

On the side of the pouch 12, there is provided a bar code 52. This is unique to each container 10 so that it * can be scanned when first given to a drug user (with its enclosed, sterile-packaged, hypodermic syringe and needle), and so that its subsequent return to the needle exchange can be monitored. Moreover, should the container be found discarded at some later date, the person to whom it was given can be identified.

An alternative to the bar code 52, is the insertion of a chip 54 in the tip 56 of the plastics moulding comprising the pouch 12. The chip 54 can also be uniquely coded and its code read electromagnetically, rather than optically as the bar code 52. Indeed, the chip 54 has the advantage that it can be detected by an appropriate scanner at some distance from its location and without the necessity of its being visible. Thus the prospect of searching for the container 10 exists. For example, scanning a house or an open area to locate discarded containers.

S

A window 60 of translucent or transparent plastics can be formed in the side of the pouch 12 so that the nature of its contents can be ascertained.

Turning to Figure 5, a drug user may be given, in a needle exchange, a plurality of individual syringes and needles. As mentioned above, each syringe and needle is in its own sterile package, and each package inserted in a different container 10. The container is then closed :.: 15 to the openable position by engaging just the first catch *:::* element 32 on the lid with first lip flange 16 on the pouch. A plurality of the containers 10 are then clipped * to a carriage strip 80. * *

The carriage strip 80 is a simple plastics moulding, ***e** :. with apertures 82 formed along its length (eight of them * in Figure 5, but any number is possible) . Each aperture is spanned by a bridge 84 that extends out of the plane of the strip. The bridges alternate in the direction in which they extend from the strip. The clip 22 and bridge 84 are dimensioned so that the clip snugly fits in the gap between the bridge 84 and the strip 80. In this way, a number of containers 10 can be neatly and securely grouped together, enabling them to be counted easily.

The user can detach containers from the strip, as and when needed, and can carry the single container conveniently, just as a pen, without the need to carry a large sharps container.

The readerts attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of. such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

* Each feature disclosed in this specification

(including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar : features.

The invention is not restricted to the details of any foregoing embodiments. The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features

disclosed in this specification (including any

accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.

Claims

Claims 1. A system for reducing the incidence of needle- stick injuries

from discarded syringe needles comprising the step of supplying drug users with clean, sterile syringes and needles, each one in an openable closed, moulded plastics container, which container is capable of unopenable closure by the user after the syringe and needle has been used and returned to the container.
2. A system as claimed in claim 1, in which said supply is of a plurality of syringes and needles in said containers, each being releasably clipped to a carrier strip. S... * .
3. A system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which said containers are individually coded and details of the * supply is recorded so that returns can be monitored.

*e.*..
4. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, further comprising the step of tracing of discarded containers so that users responsible for such discarding can be identified and/or the identity of the container issuer.
5. A syringe and needle combined supply and sharps container, which container is sized to receive a syringe and needle suitable for intravenous injection, and comprises a plastics moulding of a pouch having an opening and a lid to close the opening, said lid having two closure positions with respect to the pouch, in a first of which said lid is openable to gain access to the pouch and in a second of which the lid is unopenable.
6. A container as claimed in claim 5, in which the pouch or lid includes a transparent or translucent panel whereby the contents of the container can be discerned.
7. A container as claimed in claim 5 or 6, in which the lid is connected to the pouch by a living hinge integrally moulded with the pouch and lid.
8. A container as claimed in claim 5, 6 or 7, in which said openable and unopenable closures of the lid on the pouch comprise snap-engaged interconnections between the two, a first being of minimal interference between the lid and pouch enabling relatively easy disengagement of said first interconnection and a second, further interconnection being of maximal interference between the lid and pouch enabling relatively difficult disengagement of said second interconnection. S...
9. A container as claimed in any of claims 5 to 8, in which said pouch and lid are interengaged by movement towards one another along an axis, one of the opening of S.....

* said pouch and the lid has first and second flanges around its periphery, said first flange being nearer the periphery than said second flange and being of different radius with respect to said axis, the other of the opening of said pouch and the lid having at least a first rib around its periphery of a radius with respect to the axis such that engagement of said first rib with said first flange on movement of said lid towards said pouch along said axis results in relatively mild deformation of said first rib and first flange before said first rib snaps behind said first flange to effect said openable closure of the container, and on further movement of the lid towards said pouch, engagement of said first rib with said second flange results in relatively severe deformation of said first rib and second flange before said first rib snaps behind said second flange to effect said unopenable closure of the container.
10. A container as claimed in claim 9, in which said first and second flanges are on the pouch.
11. A container as claimed in claim 9 or 10, in which said first and second flanges are external, said rib being internal of the lid.
12. A container as claimed in claim 9, 10 or 11, in which there are two ribs, a second rib being further from the periphery than said first and engaging said first flange when the first rib engages the second flange, said engagement of the second rib with said first flange resulting in more severe deformation of said first flange and second rib than when said first rib engaged said * first flange. *.* *
13. A container as claimed in any of claims 5 to 12, **.*** :. further comprising a clip whereby the container is * attachable to articles of clothing.
14. A container as claimed in claim 13, in combination with a carrier strip comprising a plastics sheet having a plurality of clip receptors each to receive the clip of a container.
15. A combination as claimed in claim 14, in which said strip is in a plane and comprises apertures along its length and bridges between opposite sides of said apertures spaced from said plane, whereby said the clip of a said container may engage said bridge without deforming said strip.
16. A combination of an hypodermic syringe and needle with a container as claimed in any of claims 5 to 15, in which said hypodermic syringe and needle are sterile within sterile retaining packaging in said container, said lid being in the first of said two closure positions.
17. A combination as claimed in claim 14 comprising a plurality of said containers as claimed in claim 13, each with an hypodermic syringe and needle, in which each container is clipped to a carrier strip.
18. A combination as claimed in claim 15, in which said strip is in a plane and comprises apertures along : 15 its length and bridges between opposite sides of said apertures spaced from said plane, the clip of each said containers is engaged in respective ones of said bridges without deforming said strip.

S
19. A system and container substantially as *SSSS.

hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.