Calling all Californians
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| Tue, 09-02-2008 - 10:44pm |
Hi All,
A new law took effect yesterday which requires that needles, pen needles and lancets be disposed of in sharps containers which are commonly called "red boxes". The first I saw of this was an ad from the city I live in about finding an approved disposal site. You will no longer be able to dispose of your diabetic waste materials in a coffee can or a bleach bottle and it must not be put in the re-cycling trash either.
At this point, I would suggest that you contact your pharmacy and see about getting a red box and how they can help you to dispose of it. You may be able to mail it away to an appropriate disposal site.
Please post back here what you find out so that you can be a help to others. My sister said that this was stealth legislation which went in under the radar. I have to agree because I never saw anything about it from the nurses association or from the diabetes association.
Remember this effects all diabetics, not just those of us on insulin.




As soon as I was diagnosed, I went and got myself a medic alert dog tag and a red sharps container for home to put lancets in (my meter uses disposable lancets). Mostly because I didn't want DH getting poked when doing the trash as well as having a then 8 almost 9 yr old in the house. When I'm here at work, I keep a margarine container labeled "sharps: bio hazard" in my locker to store them and when that starts filling up, I take it home and empty it into the red container. I also use a small hard plastic container that travel packs of Q-tips come in if I know I'm going to be out and about and testing somewhere random (visiting relatives, at a hotel, etc). Again, it keeps them safe until I can get them home to put into the red container. Haven't yet had to dispose of the red container (I only test 1 to 3 times per day and no insulin needles) in the year and a half since I was dxd. I just ordered the red container online (CVS.com I think) I just checked and they have a sharps container that comes with prepaid postage to ship the full container away - costs $27 holds 70-100 insulin syringes or 300 lancets/pen needles.
My guess is that local pharmacies that sell diabetic supplies in CA will start having the containers readily available and probably will work up some sort of 'deal' for disposal now that it's a law. If they can add $5 to the cost of the container to cover disposal and then get a bulk disposal deal with whomever handles disposal from medical offices, they can make a little money off us while providing a little bit more convenience. Hmm wonder if dr. offices (our endocrinologists and other diabetes specialists) will now help paitents make arrangements for disposal.
--Deb