What are the laws/guidelines regarding Biomedical waste?

There are a many laws and guidelines used to regulate biomedical/biohazardous waste. Below are just a few of them - The Medical Waste Tracking Act: Enacted by congress in the 1980’s. This act determined which waste should be regulated and how it should be segregated, packaged, and stored. It also established a cradle-to-grave tracking system and defined penalties for mismanagement of regulated waste. - Cradle to grave: As mentioned above this is a result of the MWTA. This refers to tracking and ownership of regulated waste from the point of generation all the way to treatment and disposal. The generator, likely a healthcare facility is responsible for the waste even after it has been picked up by a certified medical waste disposal service provider has picked up the waste. This is the law and any service provider who says they take ownership and your liability is waved is incorrect as this is legally not possible. - Storage requirement: These requirements could vary by state, it is important to know the storage requirements and regulations that pertain to you and your facility. - You must be DOT certified to sign a manifest which is required when pickup up of waste occurs. Some common regulations or requirement are: 1. Medical waste must cannot be stored for more than 30 days 2. Clean unused medical waste containers and used containers cannot be stored in the same location 3. Soil rooms used to store used containers must have a lock