§ 455B.501 — Regulation of infectious waste

Iowa § 455B.501

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title XI: NATURAL RESOURCES
• Ch. 455B: JURISDICTION OF DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Text

1. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Contaminated animal carcasses” means waste including carcasses, body parts, and
bedding of animals that were exposed to infectious agents during research, production of
biologicals, or testing of pharmaceuticals.
b. “Contaminated sharps” means all discarded sharp items derived from patient care in
medical, research, or industrial facilities including glass vials containing materials defined as
infectious, hypodermic needles, scalpel blades, and pasteur pipettes.
c. “Cultures and stocks of infectious agents” means specimen cultures collected from
medical and pathological laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research
and industrial laboratories, wastes from the production of biological agents, discarded live
and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, or mix
cultures.
d. “Human blood and blood products” means human serum, plasma, other blood
components, bulk blood, or containerized blood in quantities greater than twenty milliliters.
e. “Infectious” means containing pathogens with sufficient virulence and quantity so that
exposure to an infectious agent by a susceptible host could result in an infectious disease
when the infectious agent is improperly treated, stored, transplanted, or disposed.
f. “Infectious waste” means waste, which is infectious, including but not limited to
contaminated sharps, cultures, and stocks of infectious agents, blood and blood products,
pathological waste, and contaminated animal carcasses from hospitals or research
laboratories.
g. “Pathological waste” means human tissues and body parts that are removed during
surgery or autopsy.
2. The department shall recommend, for adoption by the commission, standards for
on-site and off-site treatment of infectious waste. In developing standards, the department
shall consider factors affecting the feasibility of alternative methods of treatment and
disposal,includingbutnotlimitedtothevolumeofinfectiouswastegenerated,theavailability
oftreatmentfacilitieswithingeographicareas, andthecostsoftransportinginfectiouswastes
to treatment facilities. The standards shall include monitoring requirements for treatment
facilities and training requirements for operators of facilities. The standards may include
requirements for management plans dealing with the plans for management of infectious
wastes in compliance with adopted standards. In cases in which an individual generator
of infectious waste is served by a person treating or disposing of the infectious waste, the
person treating or disposing of the waste may prepare the plan for all generators served.