Peggy,
 We dispose of all waste from our grossing room (including paper waste) in "red bag trash". Though we do separate out other trash in our lab into normal and biohazardous waste  (red bag trash) anything from the grossing area is just considered to be red bag trash no matter what it is.  

Vicki
Albany Medical Center
Albany, NY
>>> Lee & Peggy Wenk <lpwenk@mail.netquest.com> 05/05/01 06:58AM >>>
Have another question.

How are labs disposing of the "paper waste" from the gross rooms?

I'm talking about the paper towels, gauze and absorbent pads used in the
gross rooms to absorb the formalin, blood, mucous, etc.

It used to be, when tissues sat in formalin a long time before we
grossed them, that we disposed of these towels, etc. in the regular trash,
in a trash container than had a lid with a swinging door to keep the
formalin
fumes somewhat contained. This trash was then taken to a local
incinerator, along with  the regular trash.

(Please note: tissue was NOT put in this trash. Only the absorbent pads.)

Got thinking about it the other day. More specimens are coming down fresh.
Also, we now have more pick-ups throughout the day, so more
specimens have been in formalin less than 30 minutes.

So are these towels, etc. more of a biohazard and should be disposed of
in biohazard bags, or is disposing with the regular trash still acceptable?

I haven't checked with our epidemiology people. I don't know what
the floors and EC do with their gauze with blood, for example. Would
like to know what other pathology gross areas are doing.

You can answer through Histonet, or you can answer directly to me at
Lpwenk@netquest.com.

Either way, I'll let the Histonet community know the results of this
inquiry.

Thanks.

Peggy A. Wenk, HTL(ASCP)
William Beaumont Hospital
Royal Oak, MI 48073