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Have you ever wondered what happens to the Plantation Bio-Medical waste produced by hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities? Even if you don’t work in one of these and have no business connection to them, it is still interesting to know where all of that medical waste goes. Remember, this is not solely the concern of the health care institution and the medical waste management company, but it is also public concern as many of these wastes can be infectious and cause diseases.
Bio-Medical Waste Regulations
There are several regulations on the municipal, state and federal levels regarding bio-medical waste removal, treatment, transportation and packaging. Mostly, however, this is regulated by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), who first included bio-medical wastes in two acts: MWTA (Medical Waste Tracking Act) and RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act). Both acts are pre-2000 and have expired since, but most of the states in the United States, including Florida, have put medical waste management programs akin to those from EPA. Thanks to this, you can see a small dentist clinic in Plantation carry out more or less the same bio-medical waste removal techniques as some large hospital from Miami.
Bio-Medical Waste Classification
Prior to any bio-medical waste removal is done, this waste has to be separated from regular waste and classified. RCRA regulations define medical wastes as solid waste hat can include hazardous waste.
How is Bio-Hazardous Medical Waste Disposed of?
If a medical waste material is characterized and listed as bio-hazardous waste according to RCRA regulations it must be treated as an RCRA Subpart C hazardous waste. This basically means that bio-hazardous waste has to be monitored from the place of its origin (the health care facility) to the storage treatment facilities (whether they are on-site or off-site) and then finally, to the bio-medical waste removal facility that handles such waste.
How is Non-Hazardous Medical Waste Disposed of?
For non-hazardous medical waste, the procedure for disposal is a little bit different. This type of medical waste, according to the RCRA Subpart D is disposed as solid waste. Of course, disposal of non-hazardous medical waste needs to be done in a way that does not make it infections at any point.
Bio-Medical Waste Incineration and Other Methods
As reported by EPA, 90% of bio-medical waste is incinerated. With this percentage, incineration is easily the most widely used bio-medical waste removal method in the United States and is therefore subject to a number of regulations, especially concerning the emissions from incinerators.
Other methods of medical waste management are: autoclaving, chemical disinfection, microwaving and some other.
Of particular concern here is the chemical treatment of medical waste, which must incorporate chemicals registered at and approved by the EPA under its FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act).
As a health care facility producing bio-medical waste you are responsible for implementing Plantation medical waste management plan and program that protect your employees, patients and the community from possible infections and environmental pollution. This is true whether you are in Plantation, Florida or Los Angeles.
