Letters | Clarity needed on how to safely dispose of used rapid antigen test kits

Readers discuss the potential health and environmental risks of used self-test kits for Covid-19, seniors struggling with contradictory information, and the UN agreement on curbing plastic pollution

Reading Time:4 minutes

Residents buying rapid antigen test kits for Covid-19 at a shop in Sham Shui Po on March 5. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 11:30am, 10 Mar 2022

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The government has announced that members of the public who test positive by rapid antigen test (RAT) should be considered positive cases, and many more people are now using these self-testing kits. However, most of us might not know how to dispose of used RAT kits properly and we throw them away together with household trash.

According to Miriam Diamond, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Toronto, used RAT kits are considered biohazardous waste and should be disposed of at authorised disposal sites because they contain biological materials collected from the nose. Also, certain chemicals included in these test kits could be hazardous.

Used RAT kits may contain the Covid-19 virus. If they are disposed of as municipal solid waste, it could expose the virus to the environment and the people handling the waste.

In one brand of the self-test kits found in the European Union’s common list of Covid-19 rapid antigen tests, for example, the instruction to users is to dispose of the used kit in household trash. It does not provide a plastic bag for the disposal. The Hong Kong government’s advice is to “wrap and seal all components of the test kit carefully and dispose properly”.

Shouldn’t used kits be considered clinical waste? According to the Waste Disposal Ordinance, clinical waste means “waste consisting of any substance, matter or thing belonging to any of the groups specified in Schedule 8” that is generated in connection with, among other things, medical practice.

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | Clarity needed on how to safely dispose of used rapid antigen test kits

Letters | Clarity needed on how to safely dispose of used rapid antigen test kits