The Medical Waste Tracking Act (MWTA) defines medical waste like this: “any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals.”
For the purposes of medical waste management Boca Raton, medical waste can be divided into four main categories: general, infectious hazardous and radioactive. Let’s take a closer look at each of them individually.
General Medical Waste
This group consists of 85% or even more of the total amount of medical waste a typical health care facility (I.e hospital or clinic) produces. Basically, there is little difference between general medical waste and general household or general office waste, as this group (general medical waste also includes items such as paper, liquids (non-infectious), plastics and any other material that does not fit into one of the three other medical waste groups. Due to its non-hazardous and non-infectious potential, general medical wastes are more often than not not even considered as medical waste.
Infectious Waste
Infectious waste has the potential of provoking infectious to humans. This type of waste includes human or animal body parts, organs, blood, tissue, as well as items contaminated with blood or body fluids containing pathogens (like blood-soiled bandages, cultures and stocks, used surgical gloves and more)
Most infectious waste, such as human body parts, organs and tissue, can be labeled as “pathological waste” and thus require special medical waste management Boca Raton treatment.
Hazardous Waste
Hazardous waste is best described as waste that has the potential to affect people in some non-infectious way. Such waste includes sharps. Sharps are objects that can lacerate or pierce the skin. Such items include needles, syringes (if there is a needle attached), scalpels, razor blades, scissors, root canal files and other instruments used in surgical or dentist procedures, treatment or diagnosis or patients. In addition to medical instruments of this type, hazardous waste also includes broken glassware from vials, Petri dishes and anything else capable of cutting or piercing the skin.
Depending on their exposure to infectious agents, hazardous waste can also be considered as “infectious waste”, in which case they need to be disposed using a medical waste management method proper to these.
Radioactive Waste
The final group of medical wastes are radioactive wastes. These are best defined as waste that is a product or is generated from nuclear medicine treatments, cancer therapies (chemotherapy) and any medical equipment using radioactive isotopes.
If infectious or any other type of medical waste is contaminated with radioactive material, then it is treated as radioactive waste and not as usual.
WHO Medical Waste Classification
WHO (World Health Organization) also has its own classification of medical wastes you should know about:
• Infectious
• Pathological
• Sharps
• Pharmaceuticals
• Radioactive
• Other
