Toxic Hazards
Biomedical waste fact sheet
What are biomedical wastes?
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- Biomedical wastes include a wide variety of items that may carry disease-causing germs including those that cause hepatitis and the virus that causes AIDS. It also includes items such as: live vaccines; laboratory samples; cultures; sharp needles; lancets that have been used to puncture, cut, or scrape the body; and human or animal body fluids or waste.
- Because laboratories, hospitals, and medical clinics generate much of this waste, these facilities are required by law to follow procedures to protect the public from contact with this waste.
- Biomedical waste can also be created in homes and businesses so it is important for everyone to know about safe handling of this type of waste.
- Sometimes in a disaster situation, normal disposal systems for biomedical waste may be disrupted. When these disruptions occur, the disease risk from these wastes increases.
What can I do to protect myself from biomedical wastes?
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- Wash your hands with soap and warm water after handling biomedical waste. Also, wash all areas of your body with soap and water that you think may have come into contact with biomedical waste, even if you are not sure your body actually touched the biomedical waste.
- Keep all sores and cuts covered.
- Immediately replace wet bandages with clean, dry bandages.
- Wear disposable latex gloves when handling biomedical waste. Discard the gloves immediately after use.
- Wear an apron or another type of cover to protect your clothes from contact with the waste. If your clothes become soiled, put on fresh clothes, and take a shower, if possible.
- Launder or throw away clothes soiled with biomedical waste.
- Promptly clean and disinfect soiled, hard-surfaced floors by using a germicidal or bleach solution and mopping up with paper towels.
- Clean soiled carpets. First blot up as much of the spill as possible with paper towels and put the soiled paper towels in a plastic lined, leak-proof container. Then try one of the following:
- Steam clean the carpet with an extraction method.
- Scrub the carpet with germicidal rug shampoo and a brush. Soak the brush used for scrubbing in a disinfectant solution and rinse the brush. Let the carpet dry, and then vacuum it.
- Never handle syringes, needles, or lancets with your hands. Use a towel, shovel, and/or broom and a dustpan to pick up these sharp objects. Dispose of them in a plastic soda pop bottle with a cap. Tape down the bottle cap. Then throw the bottle in the trash.
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related sites
 King County Needle Exchange Program
Needle exchange is designed to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne infections among injection drug users, their families and communities.
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