Transportation is an important aspect of medical waste management Broward. Just as there are strict regulations when it comes to medical disposal, so there are equally strict regulations regarding transportation of these wastes, as well as guidelines.
Medical waste must be transported in special receptacles and is regulated at the state level and by the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Guidelines for Medical Waste Transportation
Medical waste contain or may contain different infectious agents. These agents sometimes react positively or negatively to certain temperatures and changes in temperatures and climates. For instance, one of the best and most utilized ways to destroy microorganisms in medical wastes is by incinerating them. We will not go further into this medical waste management method, but you should know that incineration is one of the most effective ones there are.
However, just like certain temperatures can harm infectious agents, certain ones can help them thrive. Therefore, it is important that, during transport, these waste are kept temperatures that do not allow microorganisms to spread any further.
Another important goal of transporting medical waste is to make sure it stays contained when traveling from point A (that would be the source, or the place where medical waste was generated, most likely some hospital or other health care facility), to point B (which would, in this case, be the medical waste management plant where biohazardous waste is going to be destroyed). A safe biohazardous wastes storage also ensures the protection of medical waste management workers during transport or while loading/unloading this dangerous cargo.
Difference In Regulations for Transporting Medical Waste and Medical Supplies
The Department of Transportation is responsible for shipping both medical waste and medical supplies. However, their responsibility lies only in safely moving one or the other from one place to the other. The DOT is NOT RESPONSIBLE for packaging. This especially goes for biohazardous materials. The shipper, or the company or person who produced infectious waste is held accountable for packaging them.
As such, those companies that generate infectious wastes must have employees who are both trained and experienced in properly packaging such material. According to DOT guidelines, medical waste has to be packaged in rigid, non-leakable containers and have to also use appropriate inner packagings.
DOT may also has additional special rules about infectious substances, so the shipper should first contact his state’s health or waste department and see if there are some more rules that apply.
For further guidelines on medical waste, you can (and should) consult the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There website is a great and necessary returning point for information and guidelines on medical waste management plans, identifying infectious wastes, classifying it and making sure that the receptacles and vehicles in which it will be transported meet the necessary standards and requirements.
Finally, another important thing about biohazardous wastes is monitoring it from the source to the destination. Everything from the moment the waste is generated to the moment it is destroyed in the medical waste management Broward facility needs to be recorded.
