Contaminated syringes trigger investigation in Orange

The hazardous waste was spilled in front of the PRP Diagnostic Imaging site, cordoned off with red and white tape to seal the area for clean-up.

A serious public health and safety issue, Orange's Fire and Rescue NSW station officer Tim Anderson said the on-duty crew was alerted by Orange City Council to resolve the incident shortly after 8am on April 4.

"We were notified by council of blood-filled syringes that had spilt onto the ground in the main street of Orange," Mr Anderson said.

"The biological waste was syringes that had been used and we placed them in a sharps container and then placed them in a hazardous material bag which was then handed to council and then the area was washed down.

"As Fire and Rescue is the combat agency for hazardous materials, and this was a biological hazardous material incident, we attended and rendered the scene safe."

Council's community engagement manager, Nick Redmond said the incident initially occurred around 7.30am after an upended rubbish bin was discovered.

He said the council staff member operating a street sweeper at the time had noticed a "wheelie bin was knocked over" in Summer Street.

Inquiries have also been launched to find out why the dangerous materials were disposed of in a collection container intended for general waste only.

"Medical waste including syringes had spilled from the bin and was found on the footpath," Mr Redmond said.

"Council's health and safety team are [now] investigating how the medical waste came to be in a regular wheelie bin."

Chief Executive Officer for PRP Imaging, Paul Richard told the Central Western Daily the company's waste management policies had "allowable waste" measures approved for smaller, non-sharps items for disposal in regular bins.

Though he also reiterated the Summer Street incident has called for a prompt audit to tighten those internal guidelines.

"PRP has taken this incident seriously with immediate action to reviewing and updating our procedures to ensure this doesn't happen again," Mr Richard told the Central Western Daily exclusively.

"We apologise for what has happened and, in addition, we will work with the council and waste disposal services to minimise the risk of vandalism with PRP's general waste in the future."

According to NSW Health, clinical waste is described as "any waste resulting from medical, nursing, dental, pharmaceutical, skin penetration or other related clinical activity that has the potential to cause injury, infection or offense".

As listed on the government website and defined under "Clinical and Related Waste Management for Health Services" (including pathological waste), this includes anything that contains:

To his knowledge after speaking with staff, the PRP CEO said he understood the incident was due to an act of "vandalism".

Mr Richard said PRP will review and change its procedures as a result of the incident.

"We thank the council for identifying and addressing the vandalism incident this morning," he said, "and continue to work with them on this matter."

Traffic cones were placed on the road by council staff on Tuesday morning following the incident, cordoning off the hazard until the city's HAZMAT team arrived.

The issue was completely resolved around the 8.45am mark.

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