• What is biomedical waste?
Biomedical waste includes different items that can carry germs or other microorganisms capable of carrying diseases that are dangerous in any way to humans. These microorganisms include pathogens capable of causing HIV and Hepatitis C. In addition, it should be remembered for proper bio-medical waste management Boca Raton that medical or bio-medical waste also includes sharps, lab samples and human or animal (but only if they contain pathogens that are also infectious to humans) body parts, organs and tissue, as well as blood and other bodily fluids.
Most bio-medical waste is produced by the medical care facilities (hospitals, clinics, etc) and these are required by federal and state laws to follow strict medical waste management procedures in order to protect the public and the environment from getting in contact with medical waste.
• How can one be protected from bio-medical wastes?
One fairly important question for anyone dealing with bio-medical wastes is how can he or she be protected from it during handling?
First of all, a person handling medical waste should only do this if he or she is wearing appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment). The PPE is used to protect the individual’s skin, eyes and other body parts (inside and outside) that may get in contact with infectious or hazardous medical waste.
After handling medical waste, you should carefully wash your hands with water and anti-septic soap. Do this even if you were wearing gloves. Also, wash any other part of your body that you have reason to suspect has been in contact with contaminated waste.
Apart from wearing PPE and protecting yourself, you should also make an effort to clean and sanitize any surfaces (floors, tables, etc) that have made contact with medical waste. Do this with a good, hospital-grade liquid disinfectant and cleaning equipment which you can dispose of or sanitize as well for later reuse.
• Why is it important to store bio-medical wastes?
Another important thing about bio-medical waste management is that all such waste have to be stored in the appropriate containers. This is done so that health and safety hazard that stem from these wastes would be reduced as much as possible.
Most bio-medical waste can be placed into red plastic bags and have their top sealed. Other medical wastes, such as sharps, are placed inside a sharps container, while biohazard liquids need to be poured in special plastic containers.
Speaking of sharps containers, you may find both disposable and reusable sharps containers, depending on your state. In some states, they require that sharps containers are disposed of together with the waste they contain, while in some other states, the container itself can be disinfected and reused once it is emptied.
To sanitize a sharps container and render it usable again, you will first need to get rid of any visible solid residue. Once you have done that, use a chemical disinfectant that follows the recommendations from the manufacturer of the sharps container.
