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If we are to discuss medical waste management in Miami Beach, the first step would be to define different categories of medical waste.
Medical waste in Miami Beach has six distinct categories:
1. Human blood and blood products, body fluids and other potentially infectious material
2. Sharps
3. Anatomical and pathological waste
4. Microbiological waste
5. Isolation wastes, or wastes from highly contagious diseases
6. Animal waste
Human blood and blood products, body fluids and other potentially infectious material
This specific category includes: bulk waste human blood, human blood components and products that are derivative from blood (serum, plasma), as well as other bulk human body fluids defined by OSHA as OPIM (other potentially infectious materials). These can also include semen, vaginal secretions, saliva or other fluid visually contaminated with blood. In addition, many states also have strict requirements for medical waste management of urine, feces, menstrual blood as well as items contaminated with blood, such as sanitary napkins, urinary catheters, urostomy bag, etc.
Sharps
The term “sharps” relates to objects that can cut or puncture the skin. During a surgical procedure or when treating patients, these instruments are of vital importance to the doctors and nurses, but once medical personnel is done with them, these instruments become a hazard exactly for the reason they are so useful. As sharps are designed with the purpose of easily piercing or cutting human skin, they can also, if they’ve come in contact with infected blood, carry the same infection further through improper medical waste management.
There are two ways of addressing risks of infections from sharps.
• Mitigate the sharpness
• Mitigate the infective potential
The first of the two approaches involves isolating sharps in special containers, while the second includes specifying treatment method for sharps.
Anatomical and Pathological Waste
Understanding anatomical and pathological waste is also important for correct medical waste management. These wastes include human anatomical wastes, as well as wastes such as organs, tissues and body parts intended for disposal.
Pathological waste, on the other hand includes samples of tissue examined in a lab to better grasp the nature of a certain disease or to make a correct diagnosis. These are, therefore very small tissue materials.
Microbiological Waste
Microbiological waste includes stocks and cultures of infectious agents, but also related microorganisms. Laboratories most commonly generate this type of bio-medical waste during research procedures.
Microbiological waste includes: devices used to transfer or mix cultures, vaccines (live and attenuated), discarded cultures and other related items that can be regarded as microbiological waste.
In the medical waste management in Miami Beach, it is important to note that microbiological waste is often considered as “sharp” and should be managed as such.
Isolation Wastes
These are wastes from highly contagious diseases and involve biological waste contaminated by blood or other liquids of humans or animals isolated due to carrying highly contagious diseases, such as Ebola, Marburg or similar.
Animal Waste
Certain health care facilities and professions in Miami Beach waste management, such as veterinarians, or laboratories, either treat or use animals. Animal waste includes carcasses, body parts, and other related waste that could have been exposed to a specific infectious agent.
