Looking for professional biohazard cleanup services for your healthcare facility? Contact STOP now.
The packaging and disposal of biohazard waste are strictly regulated by state and county laws. Whether associated with patient care in hospitals or linked to a crime scene, biohazard waste should be professionally cleaned and disposed of. Let’s understand what constitutes biohazard waste:
Understanding Biohazard Waste
Biohazard waste refers to any biological waste that carries potentially infectious agents. While it’s mostly found in hospitals and medical clinics, biohazard waste can be present at scenes of suicide, homicide, violent crimes, etc. In fact, it can be present where human blood, tissues, fluids, or byproducts are released.
According to a study by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, biohazard waste may include:
- Human Body Fluids: These include all bodily fluids in liquid or semi-liquid form, including saliva from dental treatments, semen, cerebral spinal fluid, vaginal secretions, synovial fluid, pericardial fluid, amniotic fluid, pleural fluid, and peritoneal fluid. Apart from these, any other type of body fluid that appears to be contaminated with blood and isdifficult to distinguish between different body fluids comes under this category.
- Human Blood and Blood Products:All human blood and blood products, including plasma and serum, in liquid or semi-liquid form, are counted as biohazard waste. Items covered in dried blood, contaminated with blood, or prone to releasing blood when compressed or handled also come under this category. Other body tissues or fluids showing signs of blood are also included.
- Microbiological Wastes: These include lab wastes that contain concentrations of infectious agents such as discarded live and attenuated viruses, stocks of etiological agents, discarded specimen cultures, wastes from the production of serums and biologicals, bodily fluids known to carry infectious pathogens, devices used to transmit inoculate and mix cultures, and disposable culture dishes.
- Animal Waste: All animal body parts, carcasses, and even bedding material from animals known to be inoculated or infected with human pathogenic microorganisms infectious to humans are considered as biohazard waste.
- Sharps Waste: Sharps waste includes needles, IV tubing with a needle attached, disposal glass pipettes, glass Pasteur pipettes, razor blades, lancets, scalpels,splintered plastic and broken glass contaminated with infectious material such as blood.
- Pathological Waste: All human organs and body parts, including tissues, anatomical parts, and waste biopsy materials from procedures, like autopsyor surgery, come under this category.
We Offer Professional Biohazard Cleanup
If you’re a healthcare professional, you probably know that a hospital contains all of the above-discussed waste. That’s the reason medical practitioners and other staff must use protective gear while treating patients and handling waste products.
However, when it comes to cleaning and properly disposing of biological waste, even the most efficient hospital maintenance system can fail. STOP has been handling biohazard waste removal for many years. It serves in Mesa, Gilbert, San Tan Valley, and Tempe, AZ.
