SHEBA :: Eliminating Waste :: The nipper mountain: Impact of policy to manage theoretical vCJD risk costs dear to the environment

The nipper mountain: Impact of policy to manage theoretical vCJD risk costs dear to the environment

Primary Topic: Eliminating Waste
Secondary Topics: Clinical Transformation
Tags: waste, CJD, infection risk, single use
Format: Document
Document Type: Report
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Description: Recent policy direction aimed at preventing transmission of prions has increased the standards required for decontamination of surgical instruments. These standards cover facilities, processes and staff training for those reprocessing surgical instruments. Many existing hospital-based decontamination suites which have been unable to meet the new facilities requirements have been replaced by large industrial-scale facilities. The risk of death from iatrogenic vCJD from 2005 has been about 1 in 10,000,000 per year. This article explores the rationale behind this application of risk management, and its wider environmental, social and economic impacts. It concludes that the current policies are causing more harm, than they are preventing, in that they directly generate carbon emissions, and therefore contributing to climate change. By Julie Hotchkiss FFPH, Consultant in Public Health, Ashton, Leigh & Wigan PCT.
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Download: The_nipper_mountain_-_Julie_Hotchkiss.doc

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