Medsharps Compliance Overview | Medical Waste Disposal in Texas

MedSharps Compliance Portal

Medical waste is all waste materials generated at health care facilities, hospitals, clinics, physician’s offices, dental practices, blood banks, and veterinary hospitals/clinics, medical research facilities, laboratories and personal needles. In 1988, the Federal government passed The Medical Waste Tracking Act that set the standards for governmental regulation of medical waste. By definition, medical waste is “any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals.”

After the repeal of the Act, States were given the responsibility to regulate and pass laws concerning the disposal of medical waste. All fifty states vary in their regulations from no regulations to very strict.

However, the definition stands today and includes, but is not limited to:

Blood-soaked bandages
Culture dishes and other glassware
Discarded surgical gloves
Discarded surgical instruments

Discarded needles used to give shots or draw blood (e.g. medical sharps)
Cultures, stocks, swabs used to inoculate cultures
Removed body organs (e.g. tonsils, appendices, limbs)
Discarded lancets

Disposal of this waste is a safety and environmental concern, as medical waste is classified as infectious or biohazardous and could potentially lead to the spread of infectious disease. Discarded needles may expose waste workers to potential needle stick injuries and potential infection when containers break open inside garbage trucks or needles are mistakenly sent to recycling facilities. Janitors and housekeepers also risk injury if loose sharps poke through plastic garbage bags. Used needles can transmit serious diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis.

It is critical to have a trained and certified firm, like MedSharps, legally and safely remove your medical waste products within the full compliance of the laws of Texas.

To learn more about compliance issues click here.