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Engineering Controls: Isolate People from the Hazard  

Hospital sharps container with lid open.

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  • Designed to control the hazard at the source before it comes in contact with the worker through isolation or enclosure of the process.
  • Often an integral part of the device or equipment (built-in feature).

Examples include:

    • General dilution ventilation and local exhaust ventilation
    • Safety engineered devices: needleless device systems, scalpels, lancets
    • Equipment guards/shields/lids
    • Rubber dam/sheath placed around tooth/teeth to minimize droplet and aerosols in dentistry; high volume evacuations
    • Sharps containers
    • Closed-system drug transfer devices (CSTDs)
    • Replacing manual cleaning of instruments with automated cleaning washers
    • Scavenging systems, fume hoods, biological safety cabinets (BSC) for hazardous drug preparation and transfer, air purification
    • Anesthetic gas scavenger systems
    • Patient lifts