New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 7 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Chapter 26 - SOLID WASTE
Subchapter 3A - REGULATED MEDICAL WASTE
Section 7:26-3A.5 - Definitions
For the purposes of this subchapter, all of the terms defined in 7:26-1.4 are hereby incorporated by reference. In addition, the following terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings:
"Administrator" means the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
"Alternative or innovative technology" means any technology, including proprietary or patented methods, that permanently alters the composition, volume, weight, or other relevant waste or material characteristics of regulated medical waste, through chemical, biological, or physical means so as to have a beneficial and long-term effect on the environment by reducing the quantity (volume or weight), infectiousness, toxicity, or constituent mobility of waste or materials generated, recovered, recycled, treated, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed. The term also includes products or production processes that promote or enhance material recovery, recycling or marketing of secondary materials, or that reduce or eliminate waste or emissions at the source of generation.
"Biologicals" means preparations made from living organisms and their products, including vaccines, cultures, etc., intended for use in diagnosing, immunizing or treating humans or animals or in research pertaining thereto.
"Blood products" means any product derived from human blood, including but not limited to blood plasma, platelets, red or white blood corpuscles, and other derived licensed products, such as interferon, etc.
"Body art" means the practice of physical body adornment in permitted establishments by operators utilizing, but not limited to, the following techniques: body piercing, tattooing, and permanent cosmetics.
"Body art establishment" means any place or premise, whether public or private, temporary or permanent in nature or location, where the practices of body art, whether or not for profit, are performed.
"Body fluids" means liquid emanating or derived from humans and limited to blood; amniotic, cerebrospinal, synovial, pleural, peritoneal and pericardial fluids; and semen and vaginal secretions.
"Central collection point" means a location where a generator consolidates regulated medical waste brought together from original generation points prior to its transport off-site or its treatment on-site (for example, incineration).
"Collection facility" means a facility where individual shipments of packaged, tracked regulated medical waste are assembled and/or consolidated, or transferred between vehicles, but are not opened or unpackaged prior to transport off-site for disposal.
"Commercial facility" means a facility or on-site generator, accepting regulated medical waste from other generators for on-site collection, storage, shipment or disposal, for a fee in excess of the costs actually incurred by the facility or on-site generator for managing the regulated medical waste.
"Consolidated tracking form" means the tracking form on which a transporter consolidates or transfers other tracking forms representing shipments of regulated medical waste.
"Container" means any portable device in which a regulated medical waste is stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise handled. The term "container" does not include items listed in the table at 7:26-3A.6(a).
"Decontamination" means the process of reducing or eliminating the presence of harmful substances, such as infectious agents, so as to reduce the likelihood of disease transmission from those substances.
"Departments" means the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Department of Health.
"Destination facility" means the disposal facility, the incineration facility, or the facility that both treats and destroys regulated medical waste, to which a consignment of such is intended to be shipped, specified in Box 8 of the Medical Waste Tracking Form. The term "destination facility" also means any generator or facility that treats and destroys its own regulated medical waste.
"Destroyed regulated medical waste" means regulated medical waste that is no longer generally recognizable as regulated medical waste because all components of the waste have been ruined, torn apart, or mutilated to produce unrecognizable and unusable pieces smaller than three-quarters of an inch, except that all sharps must be smaller than one-half inch. It does not mean compaction or encapsulation except through:
1. Processes such as thermal treatment or melting, during which treatment and destruction occur;
2. Processes such as shredding, grinding, tearing, or breaking, during which only destruction takes place; or
3. Processes that melt plastics and fully encapsulate metallic or other sharps in the melted plastic and, in addition, the resulting melted plastic mass must be completely sealed in a secondary puncture-proof container that will not be opened or penetrated by undestroyed sharps in any circumstance of handling.
"Destruction facility" means a facility that destroys regulated medical waste by ruining or mutilating it, or tearing it apart.
"DHSS" means the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.
"EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
"Facility" means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land, used for treating, destroying, storing, or disposing of regulated medical waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, destruction, storage, or disposal operational units.
"Generator" means any person, by site, whose act or process produces regulated medical waste as defined in 7:26-3A.6, or whose act first causes a regulated medical waste to become subject to regulation. Noncontiguous properties owned or operated by the same person are separate sites and in the case where more than one person (for example, doctors with separate medical practices) are located in the same building and office, each individual business entity is a separate generator for the purposes of this subchapter. However, households utilizing home self-care are not generators.
"Home self-care" means the provision of medical care in the home setting (for example, private residence) through either self-administration practices or by a family member or other person who does not receive monetary compensation for their services. Excluded from this definition are direct patient care services provided in the home by home health agencies as described in N.J.A.C. 8:42-1, durable medical equipment companies, home infusion companies, hospice care companies, and any other services or companies as determined by the State Department of Health that generate regulated medical waste in the home setting.
"Infectious agent" means any organism (such as a virus or a bacteria) that is capable of being communicated by invasion and multiplication in body tissues and capable of causing disease or adverse health impacts in humans.
"Intermediate handler" is a facility that either treats regulated medical waste or destroys regulated medical waste but does not do both. The term does not include transporters.
"Laboratory" means any research, analytical, or clinical facility that performs health care related analysis or service. This includes medical, pathological, pharmaceutical, and other research, commercial, or industrial laboratories.
"Medical waste" means any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment (for example, provision of medical services), or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, in the production or testing of biologicals, or in home self-care. The term does not include any hazardous waste identified or listed under 40 C.F.R. Part 261.
"Mobile treatment and/or destruction equipment" means equipment which treats and/or destroys regulated medical waste and which does not operate from a permanent location but which is capable of being transported from site to site.
"New Jersey medical waste tracking form" means the New Jersey medical waste tracking form available from the Department that must accompany all applicable shipments of regulated medical wastes.
"NJDOH" means the New Jersey Department of Health.
"Noncommercial facility" means a facility or on-site generator accepting regulated medical waste from other generators for on-site collection, storage, shipment or disposal operating in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Federal Internal Revenue Service tax code, receiving only a cost-based rate or fee not in excess of the fixed and variable capital and operating costs actually incurred.
"Original generation point" means the location where regulated medical waste is generated. Waste may be taken from original generation points to a central collection point prior to off-site transport or on-site treatment.
"Oversized regulated medical waste" means medical waste that is too large to be placed in a plastic bag or standard container.
"Package" means packaging and/or a container and its contents.
"Packaging" means the assembly of one or more containers and any other components necessary to ensure compliance with 7:26-3A.11 and applicable Federal laws and regulations including, but not limited to, 49 C.F.R. Parts 171 - 180 as amended and supplemented.
"Person" means an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, any interstate body, or any department, agency or instrumentality of the United States.
"Regulated medical waste" or "RMW" means those medical wastes that have been listed or meet the waste characteristic classification criteria described at 7:26-3A.6 and that must be managed in accordance with the requirements of this subchapter.
"Storage" means the temporary holding of regulated medical wastes before treatment, disposal, or transport to another location.
"Tracking form" means a medical waste tracking form, including the New Jersey medical waste tracking form, the Federal tracking form, and the tracking form from other states that must accompany all applicable shipments of regulated medical waste.
"Transfer facility" means any transportation-related facility including loading docks, parking areas, storage areas and other similar areas where shipments of regulated medical waste are held (come to rest), during the course of transportation for a period not to exceed 24 hours and are not transferred to other vehicles during the course of transportation. A transfer facility is a "transporter". A location at which regulated medical waste is transferred directly between two vehicles is not a transfer facility but is considered a collection facility if it meets the requirements of 7:26-3A.39; if such location does not meet the requirements of 7:26-3A.39, the facility must hold a permit as a transfer station pursuant to 7:26-2.4.
"Transportation" means the shipment or conveyance of regulated medical waste by air, rail, highway, or water.
"Transporter" means a person engaged in the off-site transportation of regulated medical waste by air, rail, highway, or water, and, for the purposes of 7:26-3A.9(h), means a supplier of radioactive medical supplies.
"Treated regulated medical waste" means regulated medical waste that has been treated to substantially reduce or eliminate its potential for causing disease, but has not yet been destroyed.
"Treatment", "treated", or "treats" when used in any section of this subchapter except for 7:26-3A.6(a), shall mean to change the biological character or composition of any regulated medical waste to reduce or eliminate its potential for causing diseases through such methods, techniques or processes as incineration, steam sterilization, chemical disinfection, irradiation, thermal inactivation, or any other effective method as approved by the State Department of Health. If antimicrobial chemicals are used in regulated medical waste treatment the chemicals must be registered under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) program specifically for this purpose. When used in the context of 7:26-3A.6(a), treatment means either the provision of medical services or the preparation of human or animal remains for internment or cremation.
"Treatment facility" means a facility which treats regulated medical waste.
"Universal biohazard symbol" means the symbol design that conforms to the design shown in 29 C.F.R. § 1910.145(f)(8)(ii).
"Untreated regulated medical waste" that has not been treated to substantially reduce or eliminate its potential for causing disease.
"Waste category" means either untreated regulated medical waste or treated regulated medical waste.
"Waste Class" means the description of Waste Class found at 7:26-3A.6(a).
