Vermont Medical Waste Disposal
The image of a red barn and a covered bridge call to mind the New England state of Vermont, and that is still true today. The state is careful to maintain its idyllic look and feel–you won’t find many strip malls or McDonald’s restaurants in the Green Mountain State. What you will find are dairy cows and maple syrup: VT is the biggest producer in the country of the sweet amber liquid. 75% of the total land area in Vermont is covered in forests. The state is also very environmentally-friendly; Burlington is the first city in the U.S. to run completely on renewable energy. Bennington also has access to natural resources and water power. The southern city is known for its wood processing, pottery, iron and textiles.The State of Vermont Definition of Medical Waste:
A regulated medical waste (RMW) is that portion of waste generated in the medical industry which requires special handling and treatment prior to disposal. The following types of solid waste are considered RMW:
- Pathological Waste: Human tissues, organs, and body parts that are removed during surgery, autopsy, obstetrical, or other medical or diagnostic procedures.
- Human blood, blood products and other body fluids: These are generated in patient care, testing and laboratory analysis or the development of pharmaceuticals.
- Cultures and stocks of infectious agents: These include cultures from medical and pathological laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research, industrial and educational labs, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures
- Sharps.
- Animal Waste: Animal carcasses, bedding and body parts form animals that are known or suspected by either the Department of Health or the Department of Agriculture of being contaminated with organisms that can produce disease in humans and that disposal by ordinarily acceptable means would not sufficiently reduce the risk of transmission of a disease to humans or other animals.
- Chemotherapy waste: Any non-hazardous material containing cytotoxic/antineoplastic agents and/or antineoplastic agents during the preparation, handling and administration of such agents.
- Infectious isolation waste: Biological waste and discarded materials contaminated with blood, body fluids, excretion, exudates or secretions from humans who are isolated to protect others from dangerous communicable diseases.
- Biotechnological by-product effluents: any discarded preparation made from genetically altered living organisms (excluding plants) and their products.