Medical Waste

Pharmaceutical Waste shall be discarded into an approved pharmaceutical waste container labeled with the words “incineration only” and disposed of by an approved hauler.

Pharmaceutical Waste Hauling Exemption: A pharmaceutical waste generator or parent organization that employs health care professionals who generate pharmaceutical waste is exempt from the requirements of subdivision (a) of MWMA §118000 if all of the requirements are met as described in §118032.

Home-generated sharps waste shall be transported only in a sharps container, or other containers approved by the enforcement agency, and shall only be managed at any of the following:
(1) A household hazardous waste facility
(2) A “home-generated sharps consolidation point” as defined in MWMA §117904.
(3) A medical waste generator’s facility pursuant to §118147.
(4) A facility through the use of a medical waste mail-back container approved by the United States Postal Service.

HHGS can be dropped off at several locations within San Bernardino County. A list is posted on DEHS’s website: Sharps Disposal Locations Closest to You. For proper disposal contact the County Fire Department at 1-800-OILY CAT or visit the San Bernardino County Fire Department website.

All medical waste shall be hauled by a registered hazardous waste hauler, the United States Postal Service, or by a person with an exception granted pursuant to Medical Waste Management Act (MWMA), §117946 for small quantity generators or §117976 for large quantity generators.

The exception: A medical waste generator or parent organization that employs health care professionals who generate medical waste may transport medical waste generated in limited quantities up to 35.2 pounds to the central location of accumulation, provided that all of the following are met:
(1) The principal business of the generator is not to transport or treat regulated medical waste.
(2) The generator shall adhere to the conditions and requirements set forth in the materials of trade exception, as specified in Section 173.6 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(3) A person transporting medical waste shall provide a form or log to the receiving facility, and the receiving facility shall maintain the form or log for a period of two years, containing all of the following information:
(A) The name of the person transporting the medical waste.
(B) The number of containers of medical waste transported.
(C) The date the medical waste was transported.

A LQG is a medical waste generator that produces 200 or more pounds of medical waste in any month of a 12-month period. An SQG is a medical waste generator that generates less than 200 pounds per month of medical waste.

Medical Waste Generators in San Bernardino County who produce any medical waste are required by the California Health and Safety Code, Medical Waste Management Act, §117705, §117720 and §117825 to register, and obtain a permit from the County’s enforcement agency.

Any person whose act or process produces medical waste and includes, but is not limited to, a provider of health care, as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 56.05 of the Civil Code. All of the following are examples of businesses that generate medical waste:

  • Medical and dental offices, clinics, hospitals, surgery centers, laboratories, research laboratories, chronic dialysis clinics, and education and research facilities.
  • Veterinary offices, veterinary clinics, and veterinary hospitals.
  • Pet shops.
  • Trauma scene waste management practitioners.

“Medical waste” means any biohazardous, pathology, pharmaceutical, or trace chemotherapy waste not regulated by the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (Public Law 94-580), as amended; sharps and trace chemotherapy wastes generated in a health care setting in the diagnosis, treatment, immunization, or care of humans or animals; waste generated in autopsy or necropsy; waste generated during preparation of a body for final disposition such as cremation or interment; waste generated in research pertaining to the production or testing of microbiologicals; waste generated in research using human or animal pathogens; sharps and laboratory waste that poses a potential risk of infection to humans generated in the inoculation of animals in commercial farming operations; waste generated from the consolidation of home-generated sharps; and waste generated in the cleanup of trauma scenes.

Medical waste is waste which meets both of the following requirements:

1. The waste is composed of waste which is generated or produced as a result of any of the following actions:

  • Diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals.
  • Research pertaining to the activities specified in subparagraph A.
  • The production or testing of biologicals.
  • The accumulation of properly contained home-generated sharps waste that is brought by a patient, a member of the patient’s family, or by a person authorized by the enforcement agency, to a point of consolidation approved by the enforcement agency pursuant to Section 118147.
  • Removal of a regulated waste, as defined in Section 5193 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, from a trauma scene by a trauma scene waste management practitioner.

 
2. The waste is any of the following:

  • Biohazardous waste
  • sharps waste
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