8.38.020 Definitions.
A. Board of Health: The Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health.
B. Chemical Disinfection: An infectious waste treatment and decontamination method which utilizes appropriately formulated chemical solutions to disinfect infectious waste and contaminated areas.
C. Container: Any portable device in which materials are stored, transported, treated, disposed of, or otherwise handled.
D. Collection: The removal and transportation of infectious waste from the generator, transfer station, or pickup station.
E. Contamination: The transfer of disease organisms from one material or object to another.
F. Contingency Plan: The document setting forth an organized, planned, and coordinated course of action to be followed in the event of a fire, explosion, equipment malfunction or breakdown, or release of infectious waste constituents which could threaten human health or the environment.
G. Director: The Director of the Health Department or his/her authorized representative.
H. Decontamination: The elimination of contamination through cleansing and disinfection of an area, object, or person soiled by contact with infectious waste.
I. Facility: Any place where infectious waste activity occurs as defined by this Chapter.
J. Gas/Vapor Sterilization: An infectious waste treatment technique, only for use under very controlled circumstances, that uses gases or vaporized chemicals as sterilizing agents.
K. Generator: Any person whose act or process produces infectious waste as defined in this Chapter.
L. Handling: Direct physical management of infectious waste.
M. Health Department or Department: The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
N. Health Officer: The appointed official representative of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
O. Incineration: A processing method using an engineered apparatus capable of withstanding heat and having as its purpose the efficient thermal oxidation and/or conversion of combustible material into noncombustible residues (ash) and product gases.
P. Infectious Agent: A type of microorganism, helminth, or virus that causes, or significantly contributes to the cause of, increased morbidity or mortality of human beings or animals.
Q. Infectious Waste, Biomedical Waste, or Biohazardous Waste are synonymous terms for untreated solid waste capable of causing an infectious disease via exposure to a pathogenic organism of sufficient virulence and dosage, through a portal of entry in a susceptible host. For the purposes of this Chapter, the following types of wastes will be referred to as infectious waste:
1. Animal Waste: Waste animal carcasses, body parts, body substances, and bedding of animals that are known to be infected with, or that have been inoculated with, pathogenic microorganisms infectious to humans.
2. Biosafety Level 4 Disease Waste: Waste contaminated with blood, excretions, exudates, or secretions from humans or animals which are isolated to protect others from highly communicable infectious diseases that are identified as pathogenic organisms assigned to Biosafety Level 4 by the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (current edition).
3. Cultures and Stocks of Infectious Agents: Wastes infectious to humans and includes specimen cultures, cultures and stocks of etiologic agents, wastes from the production of biologicals and serums, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and laboratory waste that has come into contact with cultures and stocks of etiologic agents or blood specimens. Examples include, but are not limited to, culture dishes, blood specimen tubes, specimen containers, slides and cover slips, and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures.
4. Human Blood and Blood Products: Waste human blood, blood products, blood components, and materials that contain amounts of blood capable of creating droplets or pooling in collection containers. Examples include, but are not limited, whole blood, serum, plasma, blood derived products, and saturated gauze pads.
5. Pathological Waste: Waste human source biopsy materials, tissues, and anatomical parts that emanate from surgery, obstetrical procedures, and autopsy. Pathological waste does not include teeth, human corpses, remains, and anatomical parts that are intended for interment or cremation.
6. Sharps Waste: All hypodermic needles, syringes with needles attached, IV tubing with needles attached, scalpel blades, and lancets that have been removed from their original sterile packages.
7. Miscellaneous Contaminated Items: Waste items not included in the above definitions that have come into contact with human or animal body substances or other sources which may contain pathogenic organisms of sufficient concentration that exposure to the waste directly or indirectly creates a significant risk of disease transmission. These items shall be determined as infectious waste by and solely at the discretion of the infectious waste generator's infection control staff/committee.
R. Infectious Waste Management Permit: The permit issued by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department for the generation, transportation, storage, and/or treatment of infectious waste under the conditions specified in the permit section of this Chapter.
S. Infectious Waste Management Plan: A written and implemented system for the safe handling of infectious waste throughout the entire process of generation, segregation, packaging, storage, collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal.
T. Irradiation: The use of ionizing radiation for the treatment of infectious waste.
U. Off-site: A facility or area for the storage, treatment, and/or disposal of infectious waste which is not on the generator's site (e.g., "on-site"), or a facility or area which receives infectious waste for storage or treatment, when that waste has not been generated "on-site" at that facility.
V. Operator: A person who operates a facility or part of a facility.
W. Owner: A person who owns a facility or part of a facility.
X. Pathogen: A biological agent that causes disease.
Y. Person: An individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation, partnership, association, state, county, commission, political subdivision of a state, an interstate body, or the federal government or an agency of the federal government.
Z. Personnel: All persons who work at or oversee the operations of a facility involved in infectious waste activity.
AA. Sharps Waste Container: A leak-proof, rigid, puncture-resistant, red container that is taped closed or tightly lidded to prevent the loss of contents.
BB. Steam Sterilization: A treatment method for infectious waste, utilizing saturated steam within a pressure vessel (known as a steam sterilizer, autoclave, or retort), at time lengths and temperatures sufficient to kill infectious agents within the waste.
CC. Storage: The containment of infectious waste, beyond the nine days allowed prior to treatment, in accordance with the standards outlined in this Chapter, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of infectious waste.
DD. Storage Facility: A facility authorized and permitted to store infectious waste.
EE. Transporter: A person engaged in the off-site transportation of infectious waste by air, rail, highway, or water.
FF. Treatment: Any method, technique, or process designed to change the biological character or composition of infectious waste to render it non-infectious.
GG. Treatment Facility: Any facility approved and permitted by the Department for the treatment of infectious waste.
HH. Vehicle: Any motor vehicle, rail car, water craft, trailer, or motorized or non-motorized cargo-carrying body used for the movement of infectious waste.