CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Some people who wear protective gloves because of COVID-19 are throwing them on the ground when they are done using them.
A top local health official says that's a big problem, for a variety of reasons, WBBM Newsradio’s Jim Gudas reports.
Rachel Rubin, senior medical officer for the Cook County Department of Public Health, says many of the gloves are tossed onto the ground in retail store parking lots and often have to be picked up by store workers.
That puts them at risk, she says.
“It’s possible — not probable — but it is possible to transmit the virus in that fashion, especially if it was done fairly quickly done after it was discarded,” she tells WBBM Newsradio’s Jim Gudas reports.
Throw the gloves into a garbage bin, she said. Sanitation employees know how to handle the potentially dangerous waste.