Infectious Waste: Clearing up Misperceptions

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Infectious Waste Clearing up Misperceptions
Managing Medical Waste with Education -Thom
Goodwin, Infection Control PractitionerAlice
Peck Day Memorial Hospital
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Infectious Medical Waste
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• Medical waste shall be considered capable of
  producing an infectious disease if
• it has been, or is likely to have been,
  contaminated by an organism likely to be
  pathogenic to healthy humans,
• if such organism is not routinely and freely
  available in the community, AND
• such organism has a significant probability of
  being present in sufficient quantities and with
  sufficient virulence to transmit disease.

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Infectious Wastes Specifically Are

• Blood and blood products in a free flowing,
  unabsorbed state
• Contaminated sharps,
• Isolation Wastes,
• Laboratory wastes, and
• Unfixed pathological tissues

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Bloodborne Pathogen Standard

• Defines Infectious Medical Waste as
• Contaminated items that would release blood or
  OPIM in a liquid or semi-liquid state if
  compressed,
• Liquid or semi-liquid blood or other potentially
  infectious materials (OPIM),
• Items caked with dried blood or OPIM that would
  dislodge during handling,
• Contaminated sharps, and
• Pathological and microbial wastes containing
  blood or OPIM

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Routinely Over Classified Items

• Diapers (adult and baby)
• Paper towels
• Unsaturated dressings and chucks
• Wrappers and packaging
• IV bags and oxygen tubing
• Gloves with no visible contamination
• Urine catheters and bags
• Paper, newspapers, and food containers
• Urine cups and specimen containers with no
  visible blood
• Empty Medication vials and broken glass

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• When you mix infectious waste and regular solid
  waste together, you are not permitted to separate
  them

• Once combined, the entire contents are considered
  infectious waste!

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Waste Streams
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Recyclable Waste cardboard paper confidential
paper metal aluminum plastic pvc, hdpe, pet,
ldpe, pp, ps,other glass medical,
sodalime wood construction demo food kitchen
grease
Solid Waste

Biohazard Waste Sharps Blood/blood
products Pathological Trace Chemo Animal
carcasses
Hazardous Waste chemical hazards solvents U P
listed pharmaceuticals cytotoxics lead silver merc
ury ether
Universal Wastes Batteries Fluorescent light
tubes Mercury switches Pesticides
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Hospital Solid Waste

• Paper waste
• Plastic waste
• Glass waste
• Metal waste
• Food waste
• Wood waste
• Other waste

glass
wood
other
paper
metal
food
plastic
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• The myth that burning makes waste disappear has
  lead to incineration emerging as a widely used
  method for disposing many kinds of waste,
  including hazardous wastes.

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• Incineration is a method where industry can
  break down its bulk waste and disperse it into
  the environment through air, water and ash
  emissions. It is a convenient way for industry to
  mask today's waste problems and pass them onto
  future generations.
• -Greenpeace International

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• Source Reduction - ways to lessen the amount of
  material
• Segregation - keeping noninfectious waste out of
  the infectious waste stream
• Minimization - reduce or eliminate waste at the
  source--------PACKAGING
• Appropriate use of disposables
• Engineering controls - methods to reduce quantity
  of waste
• (smaller containers, accessibility, etc)

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Bio Systems, an Environmentally Friendly Sharps
Management Program
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• KEEPING WASTE OUT OF LANDFILLS.
• Bio Systems Sharps Management Program uses FDA
  compliant reusable sharps containers thus
  reducing the volume of waste generate and
  disposed of via landfill. That means that every
  time you use one of Bio Systems sharps containers
  you are doing something good for the Environment.
  
• Each container is tracked with a barcode that
  counts the number of uses. After 500 uses, or if
  the container is damaged in any way, the
  container is put through the ETD process and is
  used to generate energy at American Re-Fuel.

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• ELECTRO-THERMAL-DEACTIVATION.
• Our proprietary Electro-Thermal Deactivation
  (ETD) technology is making news around the
  industry.and around the globe!
• Stericycles patented proprietary ETD technology
  uses an oscillating energy field of low-frequency
  radio waves to heat regulated medical waste to
  temperatures that destroy pathogens without
  melting the plastic content of the waste. This
  provides a competitive advantage in international
  markets, because the process does not create any
  regulated air or water emissions, and it enhances
  the ability to recycle plastic materials.

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• WASTE TO ENERGY.
• Since the ETD processing technique renders waste
  non-recognizable and non-infectious, it could be
  dumped into a landfill, however Stericycle sends
  the waste to American Re-Fuel to turn it from
  waste to electricity. That means about 1.5
  million pounds of waste is eliminated from
  landfills a month. That represents 18 million
  pounds per year.
• For more information on America Re-Fuel go to
  www.re-fuelamerica.com

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• IMPACT SUMMARY
• Elimination of the manufacturing of 737 plastic
  disposable containers
• Elimination of the manufacturing of 67
  corrugated boxes annually
• Elimination of the excessive and recurring
  transportation of disposable sharps containers
• Elimination of 737 plastic containers from the
  landfill
• Elimination of the plastic, metal glass
  contents from the landfill