With the outbreak of the covid-19 epidemic, pharmacies are overwhelmed with demands for antigen tests. After screening, this waste from healthcare activities with infectious risks (Dasri) is eliminated by a specific channel.
The rush for antigen testing for Covid-19 continues at the beginning of January, but what happens to them after their use?
“Last year, we collected 50% more waste. Thirty percent of them were linked to flu and Covid vaccines as well as to antigenic tests carried out in pharmacies ”, affirms Laurence Bouret, general delegate of the Dastri organization (1). “Normally, we only take care of waste from healthcare activities with infectious risks (dasri) that patients bring back to the pharmacy. ” For example, syringes used by people with diabetes.
But with the health crisis, mountains of used antigen tests have added to the waste that Dastri is handling. Since he was already working with many pharmacies, he takes “Also in charge of this new waste, when it is produced in pharmacies, at the request of the General Directorate of Health”, specifies its general delegate.
Indeed, the High Council of Public Health (HCSP) considers swabs, extraction tubes and test cassettes as Dasri. Since November 2020, this body, responsible in particular for providing expertise in risk management, has therefore recommended eliminating waste linked to antigenic tests via this specific channel.
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Eliminate the risk of infection
“Once collected, the Dasri must be cremated. The ovens of the energy recovery unit then rise to high temperatures to eliminate the risk of infection ”, explains Laurence Bouret. If this procedure is the normal procedure, sometimes “By dispensation, they are pre-treated by disinfection. Once crushed and then heated, they are incinerated as non-hazardous waste, or buried in a storage center. “
Certain antigenic tests are not concerned by these measures: those to be carried out oneself, self-tests. “We did not address this issue in the opinions we issued recently, recommending the practice of self-tests, confirms Franck Chauvin, president of the HCSP. This is probably because of the urgency in which we had to produce them. “ However, he specifies that the HCSP will complete its advice on the issue ” shortly “.
In the meantime, to avoid any risk of contamination, the government invites you to throw the kit elements in a plastic bag then to close it and place it in another plastic bag. Everything can then be disposed of with household garbage.
(1) Dastri is an approved eco-organization which supports the management of Dasri pharmacies.
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