What Is Bio Medical Waste?

Biomedical waste consists of used medical supplies that could potentially contain disease. That includes waste from laboratories, like live vaccines, tissue, bone and blood samples, body fluids or waste from humans or animals, and anything sharp that has been used to break the skin or scrape skin cells, plus things like disposable hospital gowns, latex gloves, catheters and wound dressings. In short, anything that might have been exposed to the samples, bodily fluids or waste of a person or animal that might be diseased.

Professional Environments

• Medical facilities, including doctor's offices, hospitals, clinics and mobile emergency vehicles generate a lot of biomedical waste. So do labs, veterinary offices, morgues, tattoo parlors and any other type of facility that deals with tissue, bone or blood. Since biomedical waste is considered hazardous material, people charged with handling and disposal must carefully follow a rigid set of procedures to protect both the public and medical and technical workers.

In the Home

• Biomedical waste is also common at home, especially for people who regularly give themselves injections, like diabetics, or people who must change wound dressings. It's important to know the rules for storage and disposal of biomedical waste, because the same laws bind everyone. Band-Aids or other small bandages are not considered biomedical waste and can be thrown away.

The Danger

• The danger of improper disposal of biomedical waste is that someone else can be injured or exposed to disease, or could steal needles for unsanitary reuse. Diabetes, for example, is not catching, but grabbing a bag containing a needle could easily injure a waste collector. Even if the injury is minor, the injured person may feel the need to be tested repeatedly for AIDs and may be forced to live with the fear of AIDs for years to come. A needle tossed carelessly in with household trash could also be exposed to salmonella or some other potential hazard in the trash, leaving you liable for a major outcome following even a minor wound.

  Another potential scenario is that used needles in your garbage could end up in the hands of junkies intent on reusing them to inject drugs.

Storage

• Sharps (for example needles or lancets) must be kept in a leak-proof, puncture-resistant and break-resistant container. The container should be clearly labeled, with a tight lid. Biomedical wastes should never be combined with other household garbage or stored within reach of children. Biomedical waste, collected in red plastic bags, must be stored and transported within a rigid container like a drum or a bin.

Disposal

• Most communities have official disposal protocols and drop-off sites. Check with your local government health department to learn the best methods of disposal in your community. In addition, biomedical wastes can be mailed in provided containers to services like mailyoursharps.com for a reasonable fee.