Safety When Taking a Known Hazard Medicine
Care instructions
Known hazard medicines
If you have been prescribed a known hazardous medicine to treat your health needs, you and the people around you need to follow some safety measures. Read the following information and follow the safety measures. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have any questions.
Although the known hazard medicine will help you, contact with the known hazard medicine or contact with your body fluids and waste, especially during the precautionary period, can harm other people or pets.
The precautionary period is the time period that you and others need to follow certain safety measures to protect others from your body fluids and waste.
- The precautionary period starts when you take your first dose of the known hazard medicine.
- The precautionary period usually ends 48 hours after you take your last dose of the known hazard medicine. But it is sometimes longer than 48 hours.
- If you aren't sure how long the precautionary period is for the known hazard medicine you're taking, ask your healthcare provider.
In this handout, the term caregivers includes people like family or friends who may help with your care. Formal caregivers from an agency who are paid to be your caregiver should follow the rules their agency provides to protect themselves while providing care.
General safety
For their safety, tell every healthcare provider who has contact with you that you’re taking a known hazard medicine. Keep an updated list of medicines you’re taking.
Always store known hazard medicine in its original packaging or in a separate pill box, dosette, or blister pack.
Keep your known hazard medicine in a safe place away from:
- children and pets
- your other medicines or the medicines of other people in your home
- food and drink
- places where you eat
Check the label on the medicine container and talk to your pharmacist to learn more about storing your medicine safely.
If you need supplies to help you safely manage your medicine, ask the pharmacy or clinic where you get your known hazard medicine, or buy them from a medical supply company. Examples of supplies may include a sharps container, disposable gloves, or a spill kit.
Having sex, getting pregnant, or breastfeeding
It’s safe and important to be with your loved ones. If you are taking a known hazard medicine, you can eat together, enjoy activities together, touch, hug, and kiss.
If a caregiver is trying to get pregnant, is pregnant, or is breastfeeding, they should:
- talk to their own healthcare provider about the care they are providing
- follow the safety steps below when they are providing care
Talk to your healthcare provider about having sex, getting pregnant, or breastfeeding when you're taking a known hazard medicine.
Taking the medicine
Always wash your hands with soap and water before and after taking a known hazard medicine.
Caregivers should never touch the known hazard medicine with their bare hands. They should always:
- wear disposable gloves
- wash their hands with soap and water before putting on the disposable gloves
- remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching other surfaces
- wash their hands with soap and water after taking off disposable gloves
If your known hazard medicine is damaged—for example, a broken pill (or powder found in the medicine container), leaking liquid, or a cloudy injection:
- do not take the damaged medicine
- talk to your pharmacist about what to do with your damaged medicine
- contact your healthcare provider if you need a replacement of your damaged medicine
Talk to your healthcare provider about how you should take your known hazard medicine safely or how your caregivers should help you take your known hazard medicine safely, whether it is a pill, liquid, injection, or cream.
Throwing out medicine and used supplies
If you have extra known hazard medicine, take it to the pharmacy who gave it to you so they can throw it out safely.
- Don’t put any medicine in the garbage or into a sharps container.
- Don't flush any medicine down a toilet.
- Don’t put any sharps (like glass vials, syringes, and needles) in the same container as unused, partly used, or expired medicine.
Talk to your pharmacist or other healthcare provider about throwing out medicine and used supplies safely. Learn more about safely throwing out general waste, medicine waste and sharps.
Body fluids and waste
Body fluids and waste includes urine (pee), stool (poop), blood, vomit (throw-up), saliva (spit), sweat, vaginal fluids, and semen.
During the precautionary period, the known hazard medicine is in your body fluids and waste so you and your caregivers need to follow special precautions:
- Always wash your hands with soap and water before and after going to the bathroom or when handling your body fluids and waste. This includes when you handle diapers and incontinence products, menstrual products, or the contents from a bed pan, commode, chair basin, urinary catheter, or ostomy bag.
- Caregivers should never touch your body fluids and waste with their bare hands. If they need to help with your care, they should always:
- wear disposable gloves
- wash their hands before putting on the disposable gloves
- remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching other surfaces
- wash their hands with soap and water after throwing out the disposable gloves
Talk to your healthcare provider about handling body fluids and waste safely during and after the precautionary period.
Doing laundry
During the precautionary period, clothes, towels, or bedding that have been in contact with your known hazard medicine or your body fluids or waste need to be washed separately from other laundry and washes 2 times with detergent. See doing laundry for full instructions.
After the precautionary period, clothes, towels, or bedding can be washed as you normally would.
Talk to your healthcare provider about doing laundry safely during or after the precautionary period.
Contact with eyes or skin
If the known hazard medicine or your body fluids or waste comes in contact with a person’s eyes or skin, take care of the person first, then clean up the spill, if you need to.
First aid: Contact with eyes
To flush eyes that had contact with the known hazard medicine, or with your body fluids or waste:
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers must also put on disposable gloves.
- If the person is wearing contact lenses, take them out and throw them away.
- Flush eyes with fresh, lukewarm running water for 15 minutes, while keeping eyes open. Do not rub eyes while flushing with water.
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers should remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching any surfaces and then wash their hands with soap and water.
Call Health Link at 811 or get medical help right away.
First aid: Contact with skin
To clean skin that had contact with the known hazard medicine, or with your body fluids or waste during the precautionary period:
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers must also put on disposable gloves.
- Take off the clothing or remove the bedding that had contact with the known hazard medicine or your body fluids or waste. See doing laundry for cleaning instructions.
- Use soap and water to wash the affected skin for 15 minutes. Do this in the shower if needed.
- Pat the skin dry.
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers should remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching any other surfaces and then wash their hands with soap and water.
If the skin gets irritated or a rash starts, call your clinic, family doctor, or Health Link at 811.
Cleaning up spills
A spill could be:
- a spilled liquid known hazard medicine
- the powder from a known hazard medicine tablet that has been cut or a capsule that has broken
- your spilled body fluids or waste during the precautionary period
Tablets or capsules that are dropped but are not cut or broken are not considered a spill.
Wear disposable gloves to pick up the tablet or capsule, put in into a separate container, and return it to the pharmacy that gave it to you so they can throw it out safely.
Talk to your healthcare provider about a spill kit, which includes all the supplies you need to clean up a spill.
Follow the instructions from your healthcare provider about cleaning up spills of a known hazard medicine, or your body fluids or waste during the precautionary period.
Learning more
To learn more about how to safely take known hazard medicines, go to: safety when you're taking a known hazard medicine.
To see this information online and learn more, visit MyHealth.Alberta.ca/health/pages/conditions.aspx?Hwid=custom.ab_hazard_medicines_safety_inst.
For 24/7 nurse advice and general health information call Health Link at 811.
Current as of: February 19, 2025
Author: Provincial Hazardous Medication Committee, Alberta Health Services
This material is not a substitute for the advice of a qualified health professional. This material is intended for general information only and is provided on an "as is", "where is" basis. Although reasonable efforts were made to confirm the accuracy of the information, Alberta Health Services does not make any representation or warranty, express, implied or statutory, as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, applicability or fitness for a particular purpose of such information. Alberta Health Services expressly disclaims all liability for the use of these materials, and for any claims, actions, demands or suits arising from such use.
