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Medical Waste
Pharmaceutical Waste
Medical waste is all waste materials generated at health care facilities, such as hospitals, clinics, physician's offices, dental practices, blood banks, and veterinary hospitals/clinics, as well as medical research facilities and laboratories.
The Medical Waste tracking Act of 1988 defines medical waste as "any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals." This definition includes, but is not limited to:
- blood-soaked bandages
- culture dishes and other glassware
- discarded surgical gloves
- discarded surgical instruments
- discarded needles used to give shots or draw blood (e.g., medical sharps)
- cultures, stocks, swabs used to inoculate cultures
- removed body organs (e.g., tonsils, appendices, limbs)
- discarded lancets