What's In a Body Fluid Clean-Up Kit

Bloodborne pathogens can pose serious hazards for workers. Body fluid clean-up kits help to reduce occupational exposure — and improve compliance with occupational safety regulations, including OSHA’s 1910.1030.

The purpose of a bodily fluid cleanup kit is to provide everything that workers need to clean up potentially infectious materials. However, there’s no standard set of items in every fluid cleanup kit; the manufacturer determines what’s included. 

Ideally, a body fluid cleanup kit will include several essential products:

• Personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Antibacterial sprays and/or wipes. 
• Absorbent materials.
• Disposal materials.

The kit should have enough of the materials to treat multiple spills. Workers must also receive training to ensure that they can clean up biohazards in a responsible way (and properly don and doff their PPE). 

Bodily Fluid Clean-Up Kit Components: Ensuring an Efficient Spill Response

For cleaning up blood and other body fluids in warehouses, medical laboratories, meat-processing plants, and other environments, Solus Group recommends the FluidLoc Multi Use Bloodborne Pathogen Spill & Clean Up Kit. 

Below, we’ll explain how the kit’s supplies can be used to minimize exposure to infectious substances when responding to spills or injuries. 

Personal Protective Equipment

OSHA 1910.1030(d)(3) requires employers to provide appropriate PPE at no cost to the employee. Per the standard:

“Personal protective equipment will be considered “appropriate” only if it does not permit blood or other potentially infectious materials to pass through to or reach the employee's work clothes, street clothes, undergarments, skin, eyes, mouth, or other mucous membranes under normal conditions of use and for the duration of time which the protective equipment will be used.”

Employers have some discretion for choosing PPE that meets this standard, but the best practice is to over-prepare. Generally, body fluid clean-up kits should include nitrile gloves, facemasks, and a disposable apron. If exposure to a large amount of blood is likely (for instance, in meat processing plants), latex overboots are also recommended. 

The FluidLoc Bloodborne Pathogen kit includes gloves, facemasks, and disposable aprons, and Solus Group carries additional application-specific PPE products to help employers address specific workplace hazards. 

Absorbent Materials for Body Fluid Cleanup

For efficient cleanup, absorbents and adsorbents should be designed specifically for bodily fluids. 

FluidLoc instantly gels liquids, absorbing up to 150 times its own weight. It’s an effective tool for eliminating odors and potentially harmful vapors from bodily fluids. The FluidLoc cleanup kit includes enough of the sorbent to treat 50 gallons of bodily fluids — along with large pads to absorb loose liquids.

Antibacterial Sprays and Disposal Materials

After materials have been absorbed, surfaces must be disinfected. Your biohazard cleanup kit should have different types of disinfectants for cleaning different types of surfaces. 

The FluidLoc body fluid cleanup kit includes antibacterial wipes (for cleaning clothing and skin), surface wipes, and 24 ounces of surface spray. Biohazard disposable bags allow for safe, compliant waste disposal, while a mini broom and dustpan set simplifies the final steps of spill response. 

To learn more about waste disposal compliance, read: OSHA Biohazard Waste Disposal Guidelines: An Introduction.

Outfitting Your Operation for Spill Cleanup

Solus Group carries spill response supplies and PPE to address various types of hazards — not just biohazards. From battery acid spill kits to universal spill kits, we provide employers with a one-stop shop for spill response outfitting.

View our full selection of Spill Response Kits & Supplies or call us at 314-696-0200 to learn more about workplace safety solutions from Solus Group.