“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