1. MEDICAL
WASTES
Evelynn Hoang
EVHM 3305-H01

2. Medical Wastes
 Definition: all waste materials generated at
health care facilities, medical research
facilities, and laboratories. (EPA)
 Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988

3. Examples

4. Medical Waste Tracking Act of
1988
 1988: Medical wastes washed up on
several East Coast beaches 
Congress enacted Medical Waste
Tracking Act (MWTA) of 1988:
 Defined medical waste and established
which medical wastes would be subject to
program regulations
 cradle-to-grave tracking system.
 management standards for
segregation, packaging, labeling and
marking, and storage of the medical
waste.
 record keeping requirements and penalties

5. Disposal
 Identification
 Management
 Disposal
General Noninfectious Waste
Potentially Infectious Waste
Hazardous, Chemical, Radioac
tive Wastes

6. Safe disposal programs
 Drop Box or Supervised Collection Sites
 Mail-Back Programs
 Syringe Exchange Programs (SEP)
 At-Home Needle Destruction Devices

7. Risks associated with waste
disposal
 Water contamination
 Occupational risks
 Environmental risks
 Pollutants
 Carcinogens
 Dioxins
 Furans
 Other harmful chemicals

8. Occupational and public health
risks
 sharps are considered as one of the most
dangerous category of waste.
 Many injuries occur because syringe needles
or other sharps have not been collected in
safety boxes or because these have been
overfilled.

9. Incineration regulation
 Over 90% of potentially infectious medical
waste is incinerated

10. Alternatives to incineration
 EPA’s new medical waste incinerator
standards hard and expensive to comply with
 new waste disposal techniques
 Alternatives:
 Thermal treatment
 Steam sterilization
 Electropyrolysis
 Chemical mechanical systems, among others

11. Reduction of medical waste
pollution
 2009: EPA passed new rule
that mandates:
 reduction in the amount of
mercury that can be released
from incinerators
 Enhanced testing of
small, rural, medical waste
incinerators, resulting in better
enforcement in rural
communities
 reductions in dioxins, lead and
other major pollutants

12. Waste Management Considerations for
2009 H1N1 Flu
 magnitude of the pandemic resulted in an
increased awareness of waste management
considerations associated with the virus
 overall waste management approach similar to
other flu-related waste

13. Works Cited
 http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2009/new-
epa-rule-will-cut-medical-waste-pollution
 http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/industrial/med
ical/index.htm
 http://www.healthcarewaste.org/en/115_overvi
ew.html
 http://www.pollutionissues.com/Li-Na/Medical-
Waste.html#b
 http://www.tceq.texas.gov/permitting/waste_pe
rmits/msw_permits/mw_disposal.html