Spokane Municipal Code

Title 10 Regulation of Activities

Division II. License Code

Chapter 10.35 Garbage Collection

Section 10.35.050 “Infectious Wastes” Defined

“Infectious wastes” are:

1. wastes or materials with a potential for entry into the Spokane solid waste stream which include a risk of disease or infection to the public or waste stream handlers;

2. wastes or materials with potential for entry into the Spokane solid waste stream which consist of:

   1. cultures and stocks of etiologic agents and associated biologicals including, without limitation:

      1. specimen cultures,

      2. wastes from production of biologicals and sera, and

      3. discarded live and attenuated vaccines;

   2. laboratory waste which has come into contact with cultures and stocks of etiological agents or blood specimens including, but not limited to:

      1. culture dishes,

      2. blood specimen tubes,

      3. devices used to transfer, inoculate and mix cultures,

      4. paper and cloth;

   3. “sharps,” that is, medical and laboratory equipment that might puncture or cut, such as:

      1. needles,

      2. syringes,

      3. lancets,

      4. scalpel blades,

      5. broken or sharp laboratory glassware, including slides, coverslips and Pasteur pipettes;

   4. pathological waste, that is, human tissue and anatomical parts which emanate from:

      1. surgery,

      2. obstetrical procedures,

      3. autopsy, and

      4. the laboratory;

   5. human blood and blood products, including, but not limited to, serum and plasma, in fluid exceeding fifty milliliters per container;

   6. wastes that have come into contact with human body substances infected with:

      1. anthrax,

      2. smallpox,

      3. rabies,

      4. plague and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as:

         1. Lassa fever, and

         2. Ebola-Marburg virus disease;

   7. animal carcasses exposed to pathogens in research, their bedding and other waste from such animals;

   8. waste contaminated with the blood of patients undergoing hemodialysis (including home-care treatment), such as:

      1. tubing,

      2. filters,

      3. sheets,

      4. drapes,

      5. towels,

      6. gloves,

      7. aprons, and

      8. laboratory coats; and

   9. wastes that have come into contact with human body substances or other sources which may contain pathogenic microbial agents or other biologically active materials in sufficient concentrations that exposure to the waste creates a significant risk of disease, in the judgment of the waste generators infection control staff or committee;
       
3. materials designated as such by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission or Spokane County Health District for purposes of defining a regulatory program adopted by either agency for handlers or collection of such material.

Date Passed: Monday, June 4, 2007

Effective Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2007

ORD C34041 Section 1 (Recodification)