# Disposal of sharps when abroad



## jaxwill (Feb 26, 2011)

Hi, I'm new here so please forgive me if I sound stupid.  My other half has just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and we are about to go on holiday to Malta.  He doesn't have to deal with injections but he does have those finger pricky needle thingies and we wondered how we are meant to dispose of them when we're on holiday?  We have a small sharps bin at home.  We're only going to Malta so it's a short flight and he won't have anything to dispose of until we get there.  I just want to make sure we are acting responsibly.


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## Fandange (Feb 26, 2011)

Hi,
I bought some small sharps bin for travelling. Also, if you need to use anything on the plane, they will have a sharps bin you can use and they will dispose of it for you.
Have a great trip!


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## Nicky1970 (Feb 26, 2011)

You can buy a travel size sharps bin here.
Just a thought, you may need a letter from the GP or nurse stating why your husband is carrying lancets.


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## Northerner (Feb 26, 2011)

Hi Jaxwill, welcome to the forum  I would do as the others have suggested and purchase a small sharps bin. There are some people here (naming no names and admitting nothing personally!) who use the same lancet more than once, so depending on how long you are away there may be nothing to dispose of! Not that I am advocating that if your husband is one of those people who use a new lancet every time, which is the recommended option 

Hope you enjoy your holiday! If there is any way we can help you and your husband with his diabetes, please let us know and we'll be happy to do what we can


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## Copepod (Feb 26, 2011)

Welcome Jaxwill.

A 35mm film cannister or old tablet bottle is ideal for holding small amounts of sharps. Even a travel sharps bin is much bulkier. A 35mm cannister holds at least 12 lancets. Then unload when you get home.


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## shiv (Feb 26, 2011)

I use an empty drinks bottle (500ml size usually) that I buy wherever I land. Once I've finished with it, I screw the lid back on and tape it up, and it's fine to go in a normal bin.


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## Steff (Feb 26, 2011)

Hi and welcome to the forum


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## Ergates (Feb 26, 2011)

shiv said:


> I use an empty drinks bottle (500ml size usually) that I buy wherever I land. Once I've finished with it, I screw the lid back on and tape it up, and it's fine to go in a normal bin.



I like this idea!


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## Alan S (Feb 27, 2011)

jaxwill said:


> Hi, I'm new here so please forgive me if I sound stupid.  My other half has just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and we are about to go on holiday to Malta.  He doesn't have to deal with injections but he does have those finger pricky needle thingies and we wondered how we are meant to dispose of them when we're on holiday?  We have a small sharps bin at home.  We're only going to Malta so it's a short flight and he won't have anything to dispose of until we get there.  I just want to make sure we are acting responsibly.



There are two parts to my answer.

First, on the rare occasions that I bother changing lancets when I travel, I usually poke them back into their top cap (from the new one) so that the sharp point is protected. Then I either toss it in the bin or keep it in an empty test strips container. I feel no guilt about that, because the possibility of someone poking themselves on it is very remote with the end covered, apart from the fact I have no contagious diseases. Just incurable ones 

The second part is related to that mention of rare occasions. This clarifies my position on that: *St Swithun's Day*


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## Lizzzie (Feb 27, 2011)

You're supposed to change lancets every finger-prick?  Crikey..... been doing it once a week at most frequent.... clearly I'm one of such people Northy's talking about!

Definitely belong to the sticking-them-into-the-cap-you-just-took-off-the-replacement-lancet brigade, you could even put these into a small tin / box and dispose of them in a real sharps bin when you get home.


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## shiv (Feb 27, 2011)

Lizzie, when I was younger noone ever told me to change lancets each time, so quite often it would literally be months before I would change it. Now I try to change it a couple of times a week but it's hard breaking 20 years of habit!


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## Alan S (Feb 27, 2011)

shiv said:


> Lizzie, when I was younger noone ever told me to change lancets each time, so quite often it would literally be months before I would change it. Now I try to change it a couple of times a week but it's hard breaking 20 years of habit!


I'm just wondering why you are trying to break a habit that apparently caused you no harm in 20 years?

My lancet ususally only gets changed if I test another person or I get bored


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## Northerner (Feb 27, 2011)

Lizzzie said:


> You're supposed to change lancets every finger-prick?  Crikey..... been doing it once a week at most frequent.... clearly I'm one of such people Northy's talking about!...



I really only said that because jaxwill's OH is newly-diagnosed and didn't want to confuse the advice that he has probably only recently been given. I'm also one of the people I was talking about 

As I use an Accuchek multiclix, the lancet retracts anyway so there is never any exposed sharp.


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## Ergates (Feb 27, 2011)

I used to change mine every year perhaps, oops!  It's so much easier with the multiclix that I do it every couple of days now.

p.s. Northerner, it's possible to get sharps poking out of the drum if you're not careful enough with it apparently.


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## Northerner (Feb 27, 2011)

Ergates said:


> I used to change mine every year perhaps, oops!  It's so much easier with the multiclix that I do it every couple of days now.
> 
> p.s. Northerner, it's possible to get sharps poking out of the drum if you're not careful enough with it apparently.



True, but rare I think. It's happened to me once I think. Mind you, I think I'm still on my first box since diagnosis nearly 3 years ago!


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## Monica (Feb 27, 2011)

We were told to put everything in a plastic bottle and then just bin it in the normal bin while abroad.

At home we have the sharps bin though. 
Carol changes her lancet every time, except if she has to prick her finger a second time, because there wasn't any blood the first time.


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## shiv (Feb 27, 2011)

Alan S said:


> I'm just wondering why you are trying to break a habit that apparently caused you no harm in 20 years?



Because I'd much rather a sharp lancet was piercing my skin (and hopefully in theory causing less tissue damage!) than a very dull one


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## AnnW (Feb 27, 2011)

On diagnosis my nurse told me not to worry about changing the needle every time, I just change it when it doesn't seem to work anymore 

I haven't been abroad whilst I've been diagnosed but when I go away for a few day I use a tiny cannister I bought from Muji ages ago, it is metal and the size of a small matchbox and flat so useful as it fits in my D wallet too. May be worth a look if yo9u have a branch near you... I can't find it on line now.


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## Ergates (Feb 27, 2011)

LOL, Ann!  That reminds me of those of us on my DAFNE course back in 2005.  Quite a few of us admitted to using the one needle on the pens until they bounced, and then changing them.  The nurses' faces were a picture!!  Since then I started changing more often, but still not every injection.


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## Alan S (Feb 27, 2011)

shiv said:


> Because I'd much rather a sharp lancet was piercing my skin (and hopefully in theory causing less tissue damage!) than a very dull one


Fair enough. I occasionally change one if I notice it seems dull or painful. But I can never remember how long ago I changed it before that 

In nearly nine years of repeated lancet use I have never had any infection from re-use. In that period I bought an initial box of 100 for my first soft-clix; I have never bought more. The ten that come with a new device supplied with my three new meters since have sufficed; I stopped counting the number of tests after I passed 5000 some years ago  I still have about 20 left from that first box.

A couple of years ago I tried a survey on the ADA forum to see if anyone else had infections. Of many responses only one woman reported a finger infection and she was not sure the lancet caused it.

The only cases I could find reported in medical journals involved mutual use of testing materials. In one US case two women shared a lancet device, not realising the dangers of that. In the other, the nursing staff changed the lancet between patients in a nursing home but inadequately cleaned the nozzle of the lancet device, leading to cross infection from contaminant from that source.


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## AlisonM (Feb 28, 2011)

I'm very bad at changing lancets I have to admit. I got a row from the DSN when I said I only change them about once a month, so I've been behaving a bit better since, but I still only change them about once week. I don't know of anyone who's had an infection as a result either. Conversely I always, always use a new needle for my Byetta, every time. Somehow that's different.

When it comes to travelling, I have an old metal water bottle that belonged to my bike (when I had one) I put the used sharps in. It sits in my suitcase Then when I get home, I chuck them in the sharps bin.


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