How to Package Regulated Medical Waste

The packaging of regulated medical waste is governed by at least three different sets of government regulations, some federal, some state. These regulations will be different in each state and are also different for different types of medical waste. It is possible to provide brief general guidelines but not the detailed rules for each and every place and each and every item. Given the penalties for non-compliance it is better, in any commercial circumstances, to either call in an expert or to undertake the necessary training programs.

Things You'll Need

• 49 CFR, subtitle B, Chapter 1, subchapter C from the Department of Transportation.
• 29 CFR 1910.1030 from the Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration
• The relevant guides for your state
• Packaging materials

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Instructions

Do I really have to read all of these documents?

• 1

  Yes, you really do have to read all of these documents if you wish to package regulated medical waste yourself. Fines for getting it wrong start at $250 per instance and go up to $50,000. Up to $100,000 if the wrong packaging leads to the death of a person. So this is not something which you want to try and work out for yourself. Not if you are a commercial organization that is, you really do not. Go and get the required training.

• 2

  However, if you are not a commercial organization, if you are simply at home and have some medical waste to dispose of, then matters are much simpler. For this is not regulated medical waste in the meaning of "regulated." It's still sensible to be careful with it, but there are not the same fines and penalties for getting it wrong or not doing it by the rules. For domestic medical waste, it is more a matter of common sense.

• 3

  All hypodermic needles, scalpels, or razor blades, all sharp objects should be placed in a "sharps box." You can get these from your local pharmacy or other medical service point. Full sharps boxes should be returned to the same places. Any medical liquids, blood, vomit, feces and so on are probably best disposed of through the sewage system unless they come from someone with a notifiable communicable disease: in which case other disposal methods will be provided by your health care provider. Bandages and other such medical waste can simply go out with the trash; unless, again, there is a specific concern which makes this not desirable, in which case other methods will already have been provided.

• 4

  The regulations about the packaging of regulated medical waste refer to commercial organizations. For commercial organizations that do package regulated medical waste, it is an offense to have an untrained person packaging said waste. So how to package it is best found out by doing the training, because you'll be fined however you package it without the training. For domestic medical waste, this is not regulated in the meaning of the law, so other than the use of a sharps box, common sense takes over.