ASSEMBLY, No. 2363
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCED SEPTEMBER 19, 1996
By Assemblyman DiGAETANO
An Act concerning regulated medical waste, amending P.L.1989, c.34, and supplementing Titles 13 and 45 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 3 of P.L.1989, c.34 (C.13:1E-48.3) is amended to read as follows:
3. As used in sections 1 through 25 of this act:
"Board" means the Board of Public Utilities.
"Collection" means the activity related to pick-up and transportation of regulated medical waste from a generator, or from an intermediate location, to a facility, or to a site outside the State, for disposal.
"Commissioners" means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection and the Commissioner of Health.
"Departments" means the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health.
"Dispose" or "disposal" means the storage, treatment, utilization, processing, resource recovery of, or the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any regulated medical waste into or on any land or water so that the regulated medical waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters.
"Facility" means a solid waste facility as defined in section 3 of P.L. 1970, c. 39 (C.13:1E-3); or any other incinerator or commercial or noncommercial regulated medical waste disposal facility in this State that accepts regulated medical waste for disposal.
"Federal Act" means the "Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988" (42 U.S.C. § 6903 et seq.), or any rule or regulation adopted pursuant thereto.
"Generator" means an ambulatory surgical or care facility, community health center, medical doctor's office, dentist's office, podiatrist's office, home health care agency, health care facility, hospital, medical clinic, mortuary, morgue, nursing home, urgent care center, veterinary office or clinic, animal, biological, clinical, medical, microbiological, or pathological diagnostic or research laboratory, any of which generates regulated medical waste, or any other facility identified by the departments that generates regulated medical waste. "Generator" shall not include individual households utilizing home self-care.
"Regulated medical waste" means blood vials; cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated biologicals, including cultures from medical and pathological laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories, wastes from the production of biologicals, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures; pathological wastes, including tissues, organs, and body parts that are removed during surgery or autopsy; waste human blood and products of blood, including serum, plasma, and other blood components; human blood and pathological waste, including tissues, organs and body parts and fluids that are removed during embalming, as defined in section 3 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-34); sharps that have been used in patient care or in medical, research, or industrial laboratories engaged in medical research, testing, or analysis of diseases affecting the human body, including hypodermic needles, syringes, Pasteur pipettes, broken glass, and scalpel blades; contaminated animal carcasses, body parts, and bedding of animals that were exposed to infectious agents during research, production of biologicals, or testing of pharmaceuticals; any other substance or material related to the transmission of disease as may be deemed appropriate by the departments; and any other substance or material as may be required to be regulated by, or permitted to be exempted from, the Federal Act. The departments may adopt, by rule or regulation and pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L. 1968, c. 410 (C. 52:14B-1 et seq.), a more specific definition of regulated medical waste upon the expiration of the demonstration program established under the Federal Act.
"Noncommercial facility" means a facility or on-site generator, as the case may be, which accepts regulated medical waste from other generators for on-site disposal for a cost-based fee not in excess of the costs actually incurred by the facility or on-site generator for the treatment or disposal of the regulated medical waste.
"Transporter" means a person engaged in the collection or transportation of regulated medical waste.
(cf: P.L. 1989, c. 34, s. 3)
2. Section 4 of P.L.1989, c.34 (C.13:1E-48.4) is amended to read as follows:
4. a. The Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with the Department of Health, shall adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L. 1968, c. 410 (C. 52:14B-1 et seq.), a regulated medical waste management system that shall provide for the proper and safe manifesting, tracking, identification, packaging, storage, control, monitoring, handling, collection, and disposal of regulated medical waste. The regulated medical waste management system shall include a manifest system that includes, but need not be limited to, a requirement that every shipment of regulated medical waste released by any generator to a transporter for delivery to a facility for disposal, be accompanied by a manifest as prescribed by the Department of Environmental Protection and as may be required by the Federal Act.
b. The departments may, by rule or regulation, adopt an exemption from all or a portion of the regulated medical waste management system requirements of this section for regulated medical waste, or portions of regulated medical waste, that have been properly treated by the generator pursuant to subsection b. of section 6 of this act.
c. The Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with the Department of Health, shall adopt rules and regulations governing the disposal of human blood and pathological waste, including tissues, organs, and body parts and fluids that are removed during embalming, as that term is defined in section 3 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-34), in accordance with the requirements of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. )(pending before the Legislature as this bill).
(cf: P.L.1989, c.34, s.4)
3. (New Section) a. The regulated medical waste management system adopted by the Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with the Department of Health, pursuant to subsection c. of section 4 of P.L.1989, c.34 (C.13:1E-48.4), for human blood and pathological waste shall require that this regulated medical waste be:
(1) securely stored for no more than 30 days, packaged for safe handling in a disposal receptacle containing the human blood and pathological waste of only one person, and distinctively identified as regulated medical waste, with the name and address of the generator in accordance with N.J.A.C. 7:26-3A.15 and containing the gender and the social security number of the deceased, which shall be the basis for the tracking system;
(2) securely stored and transported by a transporter separately from all other solid waste, and not stored by a generator, transporter, or any other person longer than 30 days; and
(3) incinerated in a facility approved therefor.
b. A mortuary, as defined in section 3 of P.L.1952, c. 340 (C.45:7-34), shall certify to the transporter for each collection of human blood and pathological waste that is removed during embalming, that he has complied with the requirements of paragraph 1 of subsection a. of this section. No transporter may collect human blood and pathological waste removed during embalming unless the mortuary has supplied this certification. A facility operator may require a transporter to produce all such pertinent certifications as a condition of accepting this regulated medical waste for disposal. A record of the certification shall be maintained by a mortuary and transporter for a minimum of three years.
c. Except as required in an emergency condition, collection shall be performed monthly.
4. (New section) a. A person licensed to engage in the practice of mortuary science or embalming pursuant to P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.) shall remove regulated medical waste from a dead human body using a closed system, process, procedure and device which shall:
(1) link the source of the regulated medical waste to a disposal container for the accumulation of same which is completely sealed, secure and which meets all requirements for disposal; and
(2) prevent, other than directly into the disposal container, any discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leakage or placement of any such regulated medical waste into or on any land or water so that the regulated medical waste or any constituent thereof may not enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground waters and surface waters.
b. The use by a licensed mortician or embalmer of an open system, process, procedure or other device, such as a water-powered aspirator, which discharges, deposits, injects, dumps, spills, leaks or places any such regulated medical waste into or on any land or water so that the regulated medical waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground waters and surface waters is hereby prohibited.
5. This act shall take effect 30 days after enactment.
STATEMENT
This legislation would require that human blood and pathological waste, including tissues, organs and body parts and fluids which are removed during embalming be treated as regulated medical waste under the "Comprehensive Regulated Medical Waste Management Act," P.L.1989, c.34 (C.13:1E-48.1 et al.).
The requirements of this bill would not impose any additional burdens upon morticians or embalmers and would not apply to the medical waste generated by hospitals and similar health care facilities.
The provisions of this bill would make embalming a safer procedure and would provide for the disposal of the waste in a more environmentally sound manner.
In order to provide time for mortuaries and transporters to comply with the provisions of this bill, the effective date for the legislation is 30 days after enactment.
Includes mortuaries and human blood and pathological waste from embalming within the requirements of the "Comprehensive Regulated Medical Waste Management Act."