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Miramar Medical waste often contains dangerous and infectious pathogens that can easily spread to human beings and cause serious diseases. Hospital workers, patients and waste handlers are the most threatened by improper medical waste management Mirmamar, but the community as a whole is also endangered.

Medical waste produced by hospitals and other health care facilities is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA in the United States. This government agency began regulating medical waste disposal and treatment back in 1989 and continues to do that to the present day.

A Little History

Hospitals, clinics, nursery homes and other medical care institutions generated infectious waste pretty much since they were first established. However, what they and the public often lacked was a good way to regulate this waste. The first real step forward was made in 1988 with the Medical Waste Tracking Act. Before this Act, medical waste was, infectious or not, considered pretty much equally as other types of waste and was either disposed of together with it, or in the best case scenario, incinerated. The MWTA act from 1988 found its way in the EPA regulations very quickly. Albeit the MWTA act was initially created only for the East coast, in particular the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhodes Island and Puerto Rico, from 1989 to 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency used the information gathered through MWTA to set up more formal regulations regarding medical waste management, especially disposal procedures and technologies.

Incineration Regulations

Before MWTA and other EPA’s regulations, incineration was pretty much the only method by which solid medical waste was disposed of. The situation was even worse for liquid medical wastes, which were usually simply dumped into the sewer.

The Food and Drug Administration, however, were forced to create several regulations for medical incinerators, with their prevalence in mind. Two classes of regulations for medical incinerators are made.

  • For medical incinerators made before June 20, 1996
  • For medical incinerators made after June 20, 1996

The two regulatives are created to reduce the emission of dangerous toxins, especially mercury from medical incinerators.

What Other Medical Waste Management Technologies can be Used?

According to EPA, about 90% of all medical waste is destroyed in an incinerator. However, even so, a health care facility or a medical waste management Miramar company can use any of the following disposal technologies with great success:

  • Microwaves,
  • Autoclaves
  • Chemical systems
  • Electropyrolys (turning medical waste into inert solid waste)

The same documents that regulate medical waste disposal by incineration also govern alliterative disposal methods for medical waste.

What are the Risks?

The Environmental Protection Agency states that medical waste loses most of its potential to cause disease as time passes. This makes it the most hazardous at the place of its origin and the most dangerous to people working in health care facilities or staying there as patients. The risk for general population is significantly lower, but still cannot be ignored completely when thinking of Miramar medical waste.