New Biomedical, Pharmaceutical Waste Policy

The Department of Health today announced new policy and processes to safely and effectively manage sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste in Bermuda that will come into effect on Monday 1st June 2015.

A statement said, “The new policy will cover both the collection, transport and destruction of sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste. New policies are being introduced to ensure the safe and effective management of this type of waste.

“About 350,000lbs of sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste is generated by Bermuda Hospitals Board [BHB], but significant amounts are also generated in the community by medical and dental practices, laboratories, veterinarian practices, pharmacies, police, tattoo parlours and visiting ships. Historically, BHB had taken on the disposal of all of the island’s biomedical waste as it had the bio-oxidizer equipment on-site, but there was no official regulation regarding how such waste should be managed, nor how it should be transported.

“The new policy requires for all sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste to be transported by the Department of Health. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Health and BHB recognizes BHB as the national coordinator for the disposal of bio-medical and pharmaceutical waste.

“BHB now uses two macerators / sterilizers, to destroy the Island’s biomedical waste, after the bio-oxidizer was decommissioned. BHB has also entered into a commercial shipping agreement that will permit BHB to ship hazardous pharmaceuticals that cannot be placed into the macerators and that will provide a backup plan and redundancy for the disposal of sharps, bio–hazardous waste, in the unlikely event the macerators fail.

“The new policy sets out reasonable fees for the transport and management of sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste. To request the removal and disposal of sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste, community generators will need to fill in a Consignment Form, which will allow quantification of the waste processed.”

The Minister of Health, Seniors & Environment Jeanne J. Atherden said, “It is important to establish a safe and effective system for the collection, transport and disposal of sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste. It is an area that is heavily regulated in North American and European jurisdictions.

“Transporting this kind of waste appropriately, and ensuring controls are in place, ensures Bermuda is performing on par with international best practices in this area. It also gives clear direction to biomedical waste generators on how they can dispose of it safely and appropriately”.

A second stakeholders meeting will be on Thursday May 7th 2015 at the Metro Building, 6 Hermitage Road, Devonshire at 2pm. Community generators of biomedical waste that did not attend the April meeting are asked to attend.

Additional Information:
Outline of new requirements for the disposal of sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste:

• All sharps, bio–hazardous waste must be stored in a container approved by the Department of Health [DoH].
• Generators of sharps, bio–hazardous waste must complete a Bermuda Waste Consignment form, with a complete and accurate declaration, that must accompany each sharps, bio–hazardous waste container that is consigned to an approved transporter.
• The fee schedule for sharps, bio–hazardous and pharmaceutical waste collection, transport and disposal is attached below:

Fee Schedule

• 30 litre sharps box $ 286.00 per box
• 19 litre sharps box $ 190.00 per box
• 8 litre sharps box $ 143.00 per box
• 3 litre sharps box $ 48.00 per box
• 1 litre sharps box $ 27.00 per box
• Red Bag $ 1.40 per kilogram
• Transportation per collection $ 40.00 per collection

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Category: All, Environment