Regulated Waste |
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Regulated waste includes biohazardous waste. Considering that all biohazardious waste is infectious waste, but not all infectious waste is biohazardous waste, we arrive at a clear, meaningful articulation of the two. We also know which of the two carries the regulation onous.
Bloodborne Pathogens in the context of Universal Precautions
These two differences arise in the context of bloodborne pathogens and other infectious materials. For example, wet, moist, or dry flaky blood constitutes biohazardous blood. No arguement overcomes universal standards when it comes to wet, moist, or flaky blood's infectious biohazardous potentials. HIV may die out once in an external environment, but hepititis C keeps on going in dried, packed or flaky blood. We might suppose innocultation by touching an eye with a contaminated finger might lead to contracting hepatitis C. We error on the side of safety in this regard.
Dried, smeared blood or blood stained items do not fit the biohazardous parameters. Still, hepititis C has a reputation for remaining alive between 7 and 16 days, depending on whose research we follow. The crime scene cleanup technician works wisely when sealing, chemically altering, or wrapping such material.
Given time, materials, and working space, reduction of some biohazardous materials offers savings and safer transport of biowaste.
Biohazardous (Regulated) waste includes:
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Liquid or semi-liquid blood or other potentially infectious material (OPIM)
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Contaminated items that would release blood or OPIM when compressed
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Contaminated sharps
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Pathological and microbiological waste
containing blood or OPIM
Reducing Regulated Waste by Drying, Treating, Sealing, Wrapping
1. Wet or moist, unbound blood and other materials goes down sanitary sewers when possible. Bound blood, blood in carpet, carpet cushion, mattresses, and furniture can be reduced. Once reduced chemical pre-treatment begins rendering items safe for non-infectious disposal.
Causing once wet or moist items to dry out into non-flaky conditions makes sense for reducing medical waste fees and transportation hazards makes sense. This writer has yet to find documentation prohibiting reduction of potentially biohazardous or infectious waste into altered compositions or conditions. Given time and conditions these materials become dry. Once dried, sealers and wrppings may render them into a non-infectious condition.
Those items inherently biohazardous or infectious with possibility of alteration should go into the biohazard materials transportation cycle. These must go into sealed containers for biohazard transporters like Stericycle.
It seems wiser to dry out stuff to avoid squeezing out blood or OPIM. A sealer and/or wrapping around dried out bloody items seems to make sense for disposal if under the control of cleaner until disposed directly in a landfill. By definition these items no longer qualify as "biohazard waste" or "infectious" waste; for their contents no longer drips, no longer offers a source of accid
For crime scene cleanup contaminated sharps are not a great concern, but they do show up from time to time. Intervenious drug abusers do commit homicides and murder-suicide. Their sharps may litter a crime scene.
Infectious Agents and Condions
Molds, funguses, feces, and many other microorganisms carry infectious properties, but they do not constitute biohazardous waste.