For about two weeks now, red bags of medical waste laden with the coronavirus have been flowing from Southern California hospitals to a squat white building in the city of Paramount, where they are tossed into an autoclave and scorched with pressurized steam.
Shaw’s is among 19 facilities that use enormous steam autoclaves to treat California’s medical debris. So far, they have had little problem handling waste generated in the battle against the coronavirus.But that could change. If COVID-19 cases continue to spread exponentially, networks of hospitals, waste haulers and treatment centers could be overburdened by a surge of regulated medical waste — masks, gloves, booties, bed linens, cups, plates, towels, packaging and disposable medical equipment.
“If hospitals aren’t going to sign manifests,” Germain said, “we need a formal exemption from regulations requiring their signature on those documents.” Federal authorities are treating the coronavirus as a Category B threat: a sometimes-fatal respiratory disease like SARS, which spread globally in the early 2000s.
Contaminated protective gear and disposable equipment are tossed into red plastic bags with a “biohazard” label.
Tough situation