Sharps and Medical Waste Disposal Arizona

The Copper State is home to almost 7,000,000 people and 277 miles of Grand Canyon!

When people think Arizona, they usually think of sprawling, hot deserts. When in reality only the southern part of the state has the stereotypical deserts, and the northern part is filled with beautiful pine forests, mountains and of course, canyons.

The Navajo Nation has almost 300,000 residents in Arizona, the most in the nation. Arizona is home to some 27 different Native American tribes, and about 25% of the state is made up of Native American reservations.

The largest industry in AZ is Aerospace and Defense (A&D), closely followed by healthcare.

The state boasts 300 days of sunshine a year, making Arizona the ideal state for building, flying and testing airplanes. The A&D industry in Arizona employs over 8,000 people across the 1,200 companies in the state. The Arizona Commerce Authority (http://www.azcommerce.com/) claims that the A&D industry is, either directly or indirectly, responsible for a total of 150,000 jobs across the state.

Healthcare in Arizona

Banner Health employs over 39,000 people making it the single largest private employer in the state. Banner Health alone has over 19 hospitals in Arizona that serve 300,000 patients every single year.

In 2014 the average yearly salary across the whole state of Arizona was $50,068. In the healthcare industry, however, the average yearly income comes to around $106,070 which is over double the total average salary!

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that a majority of people in the health industry work in “General Medical and Surgical Hospitals”, with 112,480 employees that have an average hourly rate of $54.98 and the mean yearly wage is $114,180.

The highest paying job in the medical industry is Medicine Manufacturing, with an average yearly wage of $161,530! That being said, there are only 290 employees in this field but between 2001 and 2008 employment grew 29%.

Pollution, Water, and Personal Responsibility

The Arizona Republic newspaper reported in in May of 2016 that “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently recommended that water systems enforce stricter limits on the compounds, citing links to cancer, liver and immune problems and more. The toxicants are also linked to developmental issues for fetuses and breastfed infan

60 water systems in Arizona were contaminated with these chemicals that are produced from mostly manufacturing plants

The point is, pollution happens in Arizona. Whether it’s Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, or even Skull Valley, somebody is going to improperly dispose of some waste that will inevitably make its way into the water system and local wildlife.

Medical Waste Pollution – How It’s Different

When medical waste is improperly disposed, it creates a hazard for everybody who comes into contact with it – from the man who picks up your garbage to the workers at the landfill.

If infectious waste makes its way to a regular landfill not only does it hurt the workers, but it also can hurt the local wildlife. If birds or squirrels pick up a bloody rag for example, they can carry any illness’ that were on the rag with them into cities, forests and other local areas, potentially infecting humans.

Used needles are perhaps the most dangerous thing to put into a regular garbage can. People are at risk of being stabbed if they push down the garbage, take it out, throw something away, and when the garbage worker takes the trash.

Getting poked with a used syringe can be incredibly frightening. First off, it obviously hurts to be stabbed, especially somewhere as sensitive as your hands. Secondly, there may be left over medication in the needle that can be injected into the victim. Finally, you never know what blood borne pathogens are on the needle. Tests for blood borne diseases such as HIV can take months can take months to come back and during that time you can do nothing but worry.

If you want to make sure your medical, pharmaceutical, sharps or biohazardous waste is properly being disposed of, give us a call. We can save you up to 30% off your current medical waste disposal cost, and we ensure our haulers are taking every precaution they can on the way.