Medical Lab Supplies – Sterility in Disposability

Medical lab supplies are among the most consumed products in the medical industry. Laboratory regulations and both state and federal laws mandate that the handling and disposal of biological waste be done properly, and anything which comes into contact with a patient must be disposed of properly.

This is why such supplies are consumed at such a large scale – because they are pretty much single use only items. Anything used for taking samples, or anything that comes into contact with bodily tissues and fluids are used once, and then disposed of properly, and immediately.

But how is all of this kept from becoming so expensive? Here’s an example; a scalpel is used to take a tissue sample – does it then get thrown away? It used to be that when a scalpel was used, it was then put into an autoclave with other medical tools for sterilization.

These days things are far more strict, as even though the former means of sterilization kept everything as close to 100% sterile as physically possible, there is still always a chance, no matter how slight or minute, of cross contamination. Now there are scalpel handles with disposable blades, and these are among the many types of disposable medical lab supplies we have today.

The dangers of cross contamination aren’t always direct – some are indirect. For example, other disposable medical items can include vials or canisters for holding tissue samples or samples of bodily fluids and excretions for tests to be performed upon. Cross contamination can have an indirect effect upon patients in the way of influencing test results which would communicate incorrect data if gone unchecked. This can prove to be a very dangerous thing indeed, depending upon the outcome of such misrepresented data.

Again, while the present state of sterilization processes can and do kill 99.99% of all micro-organisms, there is always an existing chance, however astronomical, that anything reused may still be contaminated, however slightly. In the patient’s best interest, and in the interest of professional ethics (not to mention minimizing malpractice incidents and incurring costs), anything that touches a patient once is invariably thrown away.

From tongue depressors to scalpel blades, from cotton swabs to syringes, anything that comes into direct contact with tissues or bodily fluids are items which are single use only and disposed of as biological waste. These are the medical lab supplies which need to be kept well in stock at all times so that they may always be on hand. While medical lab supplies pretty much all fall under this category, lab equipment is a bit different.

Things such as centrifuges and the like, which may contain objects (test tubes, in the case of a centrifuge) which hold tissue samples and such, do not themselves come into direct contact with the biological matter. Such equipment still must be regularly cleaned and sterilized, but they don’t need to be thrown away.

Non-contact, non-disposable equipment and direct-contact disposable supplies usually go hand-in-hand. The above-mentioned centrifuge is one larger example, while the former-mentioned scalpel handle with disposable blade is another, smaller example.