Governing Regulations
Numerous federal agencies have regulations pertaining to medical waste handling. However, medical waste is primarily regulated by state environmental and health departments. It is important to check the legislation in place on a state level to understand the regulations that apply to specific geographic areas.
Federal agencies with regulatory oversight include OSHA, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the EPA, and others. The EPA's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the public law that creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. While the EPA does not have specific authority for medical waste, they have regulatory oversight for hospital, medical, and infectious waste incinerators (HMIWI) under Section 129 of the Clean Air Act.
Through its Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR), the U.S. DOT assigns responsibility to the healthcare employer for properly packaging hazardous materials that are being transported off-site, as well as training each employee involved with packaging medical waste and other biohazards. OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard (29 CFR 1910.1030) applies to anyone who may come in contact with blood or other potentially infectious biomedical materials in the course of their employment.
