MedSharps Compliance Portal
Medical waste is all waste materials generated at health care facilities, hospitals, clinics, physician’s offices, dental practices, blood banks, and veterinary hospitals/clinics, medical research facilities, laboratories and personal needles. In 1988, the Federal government passed The Medical Waste Tracking Act that set the standards for governmental regulation of medical waste. By definition, medical waste is “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.”
After the repeal of the Act, States were given the responsibility to regulate and pass laws concerning the disposal of medical waste. All fifty states vary in their regulations from no regulations to very strict.