SB 225: Medical waste.

(1)Under existing law, the Medical Waste Management Act, the State Department of Public Health regulates the disposal of medical waste. The act requires specified biohazard materials to be disposed of in biohazard bags and requires specified treatment for medical waste. Transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of medical waste in a manner not authorized by the act is a crime. Existing law defines specified terms for purposes of the Medical Waste Management Act, including biohazard bag. Existing law defines a biohazard bag to mean a film bag that is impervious to moisture. Existing law requires the film bags that are used for transport to be marked and certified by the manufacturer as having passed specified tests prescribed for tear resistance and for impact resistance.

This bill would revise the definition of biohazard bag and would limit the application of the requirement that film bags used for transport be marked and certified by the manufacturer as having passed specified tests only to those film bags that are used for transport from the generators facility onto roadways and into commerce to a treatment and disposal facility. The bill would revise the requirements for biohazard bags that are used to collect medical waste within a facility, as specified.

(2)Existing law requires a hazardous waste transporter or generator transporting medical waste to maintain a completed shipping document in compliance with the United States Department of Transportation and a tracking document if the waste is transported to a facility other than the final medical waste treatment facility.

This bill would instead require a hazardous waste transporter that transports medical waste to maintain a tracking document in compliance with specified requirements for purposes of tracking medical waste from the point when the waste leaves the generator facility until the waste receives final treatment. The bill would also require the tracking document to be maintained only by hazardous waste transporters, and not by generators transporting waste. The bill would also make conforming changes.

(3)This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.