As might be expected, this lack of suitable precautions seems to result in a significant number of potentially serious injuries, and most waste workers (94%) reported that they had experienced
accidental injury within the previous month, mostly from used needles and other sharps, and of these 28% were considered serious by the respondents according to their self-reported disease symptoms. When questioned, they were found not to be aware of hazards arising from needles or sharps. Only 23% of participants reported that they had received even basic introductory information on occupational safety related to medical waste management, and most of these indicated that this information was provided by an NGO PRISM Bangladesh. Possibly as a result of this lack of training, many respondents reported that they did not follow basic hygiene
practices following exposure to medical waste, including potentially hazardous waste. This supports the previous observation of Ahmed et al. (2006) who found that 70% of HCEs did not offer any training. As an illustration of the issues arising from a lack of training, some respondents reported that some members of the community use some of the waste receptacles, such as sharps containers, to store food, while some HCE staffs were observed giving
out used hazardous waste bin bags to patients to carry their personal belongings.