From: Ian blenkharn@ianblenkharn.com
Category: News & information
Date: 25 Aug 2008
Time: 10:41:52 +0200
Remote Name: 86.146.8.18
Authorities who responded to two reports of medical waste being found on streets in Rapid City said the materials were not hazardous.
Landfill workers picked up a box of discarded medical supplies at one location, and a hazardous materials team tended to a report of oxygen masks, syringes and rubber gloves strewn about at a second location.
[more]
An interesting situation, and one I have previously discussed with members of the legal profession and others.
When is clinical waste actually clinical waste? Should a labelled clinical waste container containing non-clinical waste items be classified and managed as clinical waste? The hazard warning is there. The apparent risk is clearly indicated and the appropriate precautions must be taken.
Do we take a cavalier approach and treat these wastes as non-hazardous? What happens if it is a sharps bin, closed and sealed and filled with........well, who knows what it is filled with?
Common sense suggests that such containers should be treated with the same caution as for 'real' clinical wastes. Consider the many occasions we have recorded here the pilfering of clinical waste sacks by staff from hospitals and GP surgeries that have been used for domestic refuse, and then left in the street by collections staff who sensibly refuse to uplift them.
For those still in doubt, consider coming across a red bag labelled 'Asbestos Waste'. It might contain simple domestic refuse, but what would you do?
The waste is regulated. Whether it is clinical waste or any other type of waste, it is regulated. Perhaps the containers and markings that define hazardous wastes - that is, the hazardous waste containers - should be similarly regulated