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January 2025
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Inside the January Issue |
In Healthcare Settings
Medical Waste Management for BioHazards
Medical waste is a subset of waste
generated at health care facilities,
such as hospitals, physicians'
offices, dental practices, blood
banks, and veterinary hospitals/clinics, as
well as research facilities and laboratories.
Generally, medical waste is healthcare
waste that may be contaminated by
blood, body fluids or other potentially infectious
materials and is often referred to
as regulated medical waste.
Primarily regulated by state environmental and health departments, the EPA has not had authority, specifically for medical waste, since the Medical Waste Tracking Act (MWTA) of 1988 expired in 1991.
Contact your state environmental protection agency and your state health agency for more information regarding your state's regulations on medical waste.
Other federal agencies have regulations regarding medical waste. These agencies include Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and potentially others.
Concern for the potential health hazards of medical waste grew in the 1980s after medical waste washed up on several east coast beaches. This prompted Congress to enact The MWTA of 1988, a twoyear federal program in which EPA was required to promulgate regulations on management of medical waste.
The Agency did so on March 24, 1989. The regulations for the program went
into effect on June 24, 1989 in four states
- New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and
Rhode Island and Puerto Rico, expiring
on June 21, 1991.
E
PA concluded from the information
gathered during this period that the disease-
causing potential of medical waste
is greatest at the point of generation and
naturally tapers off after that point. Thus,
risk to the general public of disease
caused by exposure to medical waste is
likely to be much lower than risk for the
healthcare workers. Full story »
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