I had another blood draw today for my GD test and it made me curious- what happens to the blood after the lab tests it? How is it disposed?
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Blood is treated like any other kind of biohazard in a medical setting. There are special waste containers to hold biologically hazardous wastes, and a common method of disposing of such waste is incineration. Traditionally hospitals will have one or more incinerators in their basement where such wastes can be rendered into safe ash, while smaller establishments may just hold the waste for collection by a centralized service that incinerates it on their behalf.
Most labs will usually save the sample for a certain amount of time before disposing of it. That way if your healthcare provider orders more tests, they still have the sample and you don’t need another blood draw.
My SIL worked in the lab of a university hospital. Samples that did not contain bad things like Ebola or HIV were given to other departments for testing or research. She said she once got request from a professor in the Agriculture School who wanted to see if blood could be used as a fertilizer for crops.
Some samples are passed on for “research” without patient consent. Read “the immortal life of Henrietta lacks”
This still happens
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/01/18/510442240/scientists-neednt-get-a-patients-consent-to-study-blood-or-dna
So to preface, I work in a lab in the UK.
Samples are received into the lab, barcoded so they can be identified and have their specific tests ran. Once the process is complete, they’re either referred to other labs for specialist tests if they’ve been requested, or placed into storage racks and refrigerated. The amount of time in storage varies between labs, but where I work we keep most samples from between four days, to a week just incase the doctors need to perform any follow up testing.
Once that time is up (unless someone intervenes*), samples are removed from the racks and placed into sealed orange biohazard bins with the other hazardous waste. This waste is then collected by the estates department at the hospital and taken for on site incineration. Other blood products are disposed of in a similar way, for example if a unit of blood for transfusion expires, it’s disposed of via the same route.
* Generally the only people who ever intervene are the police or a coroner, doctors can take another sample if they require additional tests, but the police/coroner may require blood from a specific time period for evidence. These samples are isolated until a court orders their release. For example, I had a gentleman who died after an RTA, the police ordered his blood be kept as evidence in order to determine if he was under the influence.
Lab worker here for University Hospitals. We keep most samples for 7 days in case doctors want to add on testing. Body fluids we keep for longer. After the 7 days they are disposed of into a special biohazard trash bin with leak resistant bags. House keeping comes around and collects the bags. After that, I’m not sure if it’s burned or the hospital pays for collection. I hope that helps!
I used to work in a hospital that would remove patient identifiers and then allow certain researchers to use the leftover blood in their work
I knew a guy who worked in a blood bank twenty years ago.
Workers were allowed to take unused blood home for use on their gardens.
Lab worker.
Depends on the department. Some keep for 7 days (biochemistry, immunology, haematology) others keep for >2 years (virology).
Upon receipt it’s labelled and then centrifuge so the serum is separated. After testing, it is then stored in a fridge.
For samples kept for 2 years, a small aliquot (split off) is taken; the original tube is kept for 4 weeks in the fridge and the aliquot is kept in the freezer for two years.
Once the time is up, for it to be kept, it is then either incinerated on site or put in clinical waste bags and sent to an external incinerator.
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