West Palm Beach Biomedical waste is also often called infectious waste and medical waste and is defined as waste produced during the treatment, testing or diagnosis of patients at health care facilities (most notably hospitals and clinics), as well as the result of research and the production of biological materials for either humans or animals. Materials that need to be disposed using a federal or state approved bio-medical waste removal method include anything that has been contaminated with blood or body liquids and which can, as such, be hazardous to human health and the environment. Such material may include things like disposed needles and scalpels, used surgical latex gloves, contaminated wound dressings, blood-soaked hospital bed sheets or equipment used in laboratory research, among the rest.
Bio-Medical Waste Sources
Understanding the sources that produce medical waste is the crucial requirement of a good medical waste management West Palm Beach. The largest creators of biomedical waste are health care facilities such as hospitals, clinics and laboratories, but this kind of waste can also be produced in smaller medical care institutions like dentist’s and doctor’s offices, as well as in veterinary clinics, nursery homes and even private homes to a smaller degree.
As the biggest generators of both solid and liquid medical waste, hospitals hold the most responsibility in making sure that the bio-medical waste removal operations they perform is done in accordance to local, state and federal (in this order) medical waste management West Palm Beach laws and regulations and that the same waste does not endanger the health or life of a person who could get in contact with it, particularly medical personnel, patients and medical waste handlers.
Medical waste can be, albeit in a much smaller amount, produced in homes. This is most often the case with needles used by diabetics, who require regular treatment at home. Although a private individual may not be susceptible to the same penalties and regulations that a hospital would be in the event of improper bio-medical waste removal, they should still make a concentrated effort of disposing of their waste in a way that does not endanger someone’s health or the ecology. For example, one thing that a person using needles at home should be doing is to dispose them in a sharps container, which can be purchased in his local pharmacy.
Bio-Medical Waste Types
There are six types of bio-medical waste according to the Environmental Protection Agency, even though you might find other classifications as well. The types are:
1. Blood and blood products
2. Body fluids and semi-fluids (semen, saliva, vomit, urine, feces…)
3. Pathogen waste (human amputated body parts, human organs, human tissue…)
4. Microbiological waste (laboratory cultures, stocks and other biological material used in lab research)
5. Animal waste (animal body parts, tissue, organs, blood, body fluids and beddings)
6. Sharps waste (needles, scalpels, syringes, razor blades, scissors…)
Knowing and recognizing all of these categories is important for a correct West Palm Beach medical waste management and the staff that is handling them should be well educated and trained in this.
