Medical Waste Regulations Essay

Great Essays
Medical Waste Regulations

“Reports of medical debris keep thousands from shore,” Washington Post, July 10,1988. The poor management of medical waste resulted in the wash-up incidents on the Atlantic coast in 1987 and 1988. Following the incidents, the congress passed the Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988. After a few years, many states responded to the wash-up crisis by formulating their own medical waste regulations. Consequently, New Jersey’s Regulated Medical Waste Management act was passed. This paper succinctly discusses New Jersey’s Regulated Medical Waste Management regulations. Considering the wash-up incidents that happened on the Atlantic coast, the New Jersey’s regulations are stringent enough to prevent such events from happening
…show more content…
For transportation, the containers have to be marked with the waste generator’s name and address. Even the intermediate handler and transporter have to mark the container with their name and address, NJDEP solid waste registration number, the shipment date, and identification as RMW. The transporter also has to complete a New Jersey Tracking Form initiated by the generator. Moreover, the vehicle that is responsible for carrying the waste is required to have the name of the transporter, the NJDEP solid waste registration number and the words “medical waste” or “infectious waste” on the two sides and the back of the vehicle. If the waste is being transported by rail, then a special tracking form is required. The last stage is the treatment of RMW. The purpose of the treatment is to change the biological composition or the characteristics of the waste so that it is completely harmless or the potential for causing diseases is mitigated. Some of the techniques used for treatment are incineration, steam sterilization, chemical disinfection, irradiation, thermal inactivation or other techniques approved by the state department of health (1). Once the waste is treated and deemed to be harmless, the waste is sent to the landfills or other sites where the waste has to be disposed …show more content…
The first change to be enacted is that the rules regarding home-generated medical waste should be implemented strictly. Although the state of New Jersey has regulations for home-generated medical waste, people are not following the rules properly. This ignorance of rules results in the discharge of injections, lancets, syringes or other sharps, in the normal trash bags or toilets (4). Consequently, the municipal garbage collectors are susceptible to the needle injuries or injuries from any sharps, while handling these garbage bags. New Jersey has a Safe Syringe Disposal Program, but not many people are aware of the program. Thus, more people should be made aware of this program. Another solution for this problem is that every time the patients visit their pharmacies for more syringes or lancets, they should be asked to give the medical waste to the pharmacist. The pharmacist can then dispose of the waste safely. Moreover, if a new patient asks for syringes, the pharmacist should inquire if he/she possesses a sharps container. If he/she does not, then the pharmacist should give one along with the box of lancets or syringes. This practice can ensure safe disposal of the sharp objects and protect the garbage collectors from

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    There’s Something in the Water Relaxing on a beach or fishing on a river are fun activities. The water always looks clean and fresh. No one wants to look across the ocean, lake, or river, and see candy wrappers and plastic particles. Unfortunately, New Jersey waterways, specifically the ones in northern New Jersey, have been plagued with an abundance of plastic.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Progressive Era Dbq

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Because of this problem a solution was proposed called Housing and Sanitation Reforms, this reform proposed to set standards for housing and matters such as sewage systems and garbage pick up. The legislation hired inspectors so the standards could be met.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Marcellus Shale Case Study

    • 1025 Words
    • 4 Pages

    However, the state regulation has enhanced proper mechanisms to dispose the wastewater thereby controlling some of the harmful effects to the environment and human…

    • 1025 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nt 291 Unit 5

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages

    3. Please remove all disposable in the patient room before dropping off the equipment. (Ventilator circuits, High flow circuits, Trach…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Joint Commission Case

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages

    3. What is the impact of the policy to this institution (economic, implementation, services, etc.)? The objective of the Joint Commission standard is to focus on quality improvement, not blame. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has recently instituted new standards to encourage facilities to focus on infection control. Factoring in, all hospitals are required by the Joint Commission to demonstrate compliance with hand washing practices.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Clean Air Act is a federal law that was implemented in 1970. It regulates air emissions mobile to immobile sources. Congress noticed that air pollutants were becoming a growing health concern among the growing public. Hazardous air pollutants pose health risks as well as environmental threats.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Infection Prevention: Hand Hygiene Kayla M. Fleming Milwaukee Area Technical College NRSAD 114: Management and Professional Concepts October 16th, 2016 Infection Prevention: Hand Hygiene It’s hard to imagine washing or sanitizing your hands every time you touch someone you’ve known for a very long time. Hand hygiene seems common place in hospital settings but may sometimes go lacking in long term care settings due simply to familiarity with the people being cared for. Regardless of the setting, the Clinical practice guidelines are the same. The purpose of this paper will be to explore the Long Term Care National Patient Safety Goal of Infection Prevention: Hand Hygiene, the Evidence-based guideline related to the National Patient Safety…

    • 1511 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    This can be referred to as the insurance companies and the government public programs. By its very nature insurance causes a phenomenon known as “moral hazard”. Unlike most other industries, in health care a third party actually pays for most of the services used instead of directly by the consumer. The consumer’s out-of-pocket costs are therefore lower than the cost of the services. This shields them from the knowledge what the prices are, and increases usage of the services, thus driving up price and cost.…

    • 4542 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    . (10 points) Discuss the classifications of wastes. There are different classifications of wastes: degradable, dissipating, conservative, and solid. Degradable wastes that can transformed to other compounds.…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Medicalization Essay

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Question C The concept of medicalization was one that I didn’t understand right away. At first, I didn’t understand why interest and research from medical professionals was inherently bad, but I’ve come to understand that that’s not what medicalization is. Medicalization is not only objectifying in a lot of ways, but it also can alienate people from their own bodies.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Environmental justice is a movement that strives to improve and maintain a clean, healthy environment, especially for races and people who have traditionally lived and been targeted by waste corporations to bear a disproportionate amount of waste produced in America (Roscigno et al. 2009: 49). Environmental justice addresses a statistical fact: “people who live, work and play in America’s most polluted environments are mostly poor minorities” (Roscigno et al. 2009:50). It is not just mere coincidence that communities of color, who are often poor, are targeted to host facilities with negative environmental impacts like landfills. Data shows clear evidence that communities of color bear too much and environmental justice movements are trying…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A significant portion of spending and high costs on healthcare stems from waste. Waste is “defined as healthcare spending that can be eliminated without reducing the quality of care” (Patel & Rushefsky, 2014, p. 269). There are several causes of waste, such as misuse, overuse, and underuse of medical services; uncoordinated care, failure to implement coordinated care, complex administrate procedures (Patel & Rushefsky, 2014, p. 270). Annually, waste costs $700 billion (Patel & Rushefsky, 2014, p. 271). Another fraction of healthcare spending results from fraud and abuse.…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our perception for skin preparation before injection has transformed during the past years. In the past, any health organization had to make sure that they antiseptic the skin before injection to eliminate any bacteria. In this process, nurses had to wipe the place before the injection process with a seventy percent alcohol-saturated (1). However, the World Health Organization (WHO) do not require any skin preparation before injection anymore. Also, the Royal College of Paediatrics, and Child Health advice that it is not important to antiseptic the skin before injection as long as the skin can be seen hygienic.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These hazards include exposure to blood borne pathogens, wounds, hand washing-related dermatitis and cold and flu germs. OSHA estimations of 5.6 million out of approximately 12.2 million employees in the healthcare business and related professions are at risk of job-related exposure to blood borne pathogens. The Needle stick and Sharps Injury Prevention article, by Wilburn (2008), reports the infectious risks from needle stick and sharps injuries and the progress that has been made in prevention of those risks. Health care workers’ acquaintance to hepatitis and HIV as an outcome of a needle stick and sharps injuries are preventable. The first step in avoiding infection with blood borne pathogens is the eradication of unnecessary injections and unnecessary…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Needle-stick injury (NSIs) is one of the main professional health and safety objects that are common among occupational health care globally. Accidental exposure to blood usually caused by needle injuries or sharps injuries. Such incidents carry great risk of transmission of fatal like hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The main alarming is when exposure to blood or other body fluids of another person who may have any infectious disease. Therefore health care workers should have ample knowledge about their risk and constantly to take appropriate precautions while inclusion of injection.…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays