Health, Safety and Infection Control
Framework
Mortuary safety rests on risk assessment and the hierarchy of control: eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, and use personal protective equipment last. Know the principal hazards: formaldehyde (irritant, skin sensitiser and carcinogen), glutaraldehyde, phenol, methanol, blood-borne viruses (hepatitis B and C, HIV), tuberculosis, prions, sharps, spills, manual handling and lone working.
Formaldehyde exposure
Learn the exposure limits your jurisdiction applies. In the UK the workplace exposure limits are 2 ppm over a 15-minute reference period and 0.5 ppm over 8 hours. Control measures include local exhaust ventilation, closed systems, correct dilution, monitoring and health surveillance.
Infection control
Standard precautions apply to every body, whatever the stated history. Cover hand hygiene, correct donning and doffing of gloves, aprons, eye protection and masks, sharps disposal, waste segregation, spill kits, vaccination and reporting of exposures. Distinguish clean, offensive and clinical waste streams.
Traps
PPE offered as the first control; a belief that gloves replace hand hygiene; assuming a 'not infectious' label removes all risk; and putting contaminated waste in the wrong stream.
Rule of thumb
If you would not put your bare hand there, the control is missing. Fix the control before reaching for another pair of gloves.