Biowaste and Biohazards

(Working paper related to crime scene cleanup - Please call my toll free number for comments, suggestions)

First things first, all biohazardous waste is biowaste. But not all biowaste is biohazardous. Put another way, biowaste may cause one to become ill from its odor or appearance, but it is not inherently dangerous. Biohazards are by their nature dangerous to humans, regardless of their odor or appearance. Remember that salmonella poisoning gets passed along through very appealing dishes.

I receive a lot of comments about biowaste and biohazards, especially poop and whether or not it is biohazardous. So for this topic, consider poop as a first example of biowaste. For my purposes, poop is not biohazardous unless it has been polluted by blood or blood products. Because our primary concern is blood-borne pathogens, disease carrying blood, we do not classify blood-less poop as a biohazard.

Just an aside here, human poop carries over six hundred known viruses. A simple flush of the toilet causes many of these viruses to become airborne. But we have immunities to these viruses developed over many generations.

I cannot at this time make such a claim about, say, pigeon poop. It is known to carry over sixty diseases. For whom, under what conditions, do these viruses become a health issue? Generally, pigeon poop is probably biowaste besides being a nuisance. For some people under the right conditions, pigeon poop is a biohazardous substance. So there is no simple answer for everyone when it comes to biowaste and biohazards.

There are exceptions. Consider anthrax as one airborne pathogen that is a known biohazard for just about everyone.

My concern remains bloodborne pathogens, though.

Hernia's, hemorrhoids, and anal sex create, in part, biohazardous poop because of damaged blood vessels in the anus. Once poop is contaminated by blood, it is biohazardous. Therefore, poop soiled by blood must be handled as highly infectious, as a biohazard. HIV and Hepatitis C are two pathogens carried by blood found in anal intercourse.

An aside here, it is not uncommon for schools and university custodians to remove poop from walls and floors on a daily basis. At this writing, I do not know of studies for the handling of this matter in education and other institutional settings. We must assume that custodians are taught as suggested above. That is, if poop has blood in it, remove and decontaminate soiled areas as if soiled by infectious blood, biohazardous blood.

It is likewise with urine if it is contaminated by blood; it is biohazardous; however, urine tends to have a high acidic content and creates a hostile environment for many micro-organisms. Just the same, if it is known that urine has blood in it, it is a biohazard.

As I mentioned in a prior post, just think of the nightmare that would be created if all feminine napkins, if all bandages were handled as biohazardous, rather than as biowaste?

Just think what would happen if we treated everything soiled by blood as biohazardous? If we could not remove, if we could not clean blood from property, we would live in a very awkward World!

Blood must be handled carefully. As seen in the above diagram, we consider all blood and blood by-products -- other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) as biohazardous. The only safe handling of blood requires creating distance from it; otherwise, sealing blood off so as not to contaminate property, persons, or environments must be carried out safely, quickly.

We need to keep biowaste separate from biohazardous material for practical reasons. Once we label something as "biohazardous," we have created special conditions, special handling requirements. For example, placing biowaste in a biohazard (red) bag means that the biowaste will not come out of the bag. Whatever goes into a red biohazard bag remains until buried or burnt. Although the bagged biowaste may have been safe to treat or dispose of otherwise, it has become a burden of some sort.

For example, what if all hospitals tossed their blood soiled bedding into biohazard bags? Can you imagine the costs? Can you imagine the additonal load on the biohazard stream of containment? Hospitals tend to wash blood from bedding at very high temperatures. There are times when bedding is so heavily soiled by blood that it must go into the biohazard stream. Before this occurrs, someone makes a critical decisiion: Can the bedding be restored?

What about blood soaked carpet, can it be restored? According to most professional cleaners and OSHA, blood soiled carpet cannot be decontaminated for the purpose of continued use. It must be cut out. The question then becomes, "Can it be pre-treated to a point at which it is biowaste rather than biohazazardous waste?" This is a question for responsible parties to answer. Like baby-poop and soiled hospital bedding, placing all blood soiled carpet into the biohazard stream may or may not be economically feasible.

What we can say for certain is that less than a generation ago carpet cleaners "restored" blood soiled carpeting. This sounds icky at best, but a good carpet cleaner with some time and patience can do a remarkable cleaning job. What he/she cannot do is prove that the soiled carpeting is disinfected. Disinfecting carpeting would require soaking it in a high concentration of medium to high level disinfectants. Bleach, as an example of a medium, but corrosive, disinfectant can destroy a large number of micro-organisms as well as destroying their food source. Replacing carpet treated in this manner is not practicable, unfortunately.

Perhaps carpet and other materials can be pre-treated or properly sealed for containment and disposal as solid waste. Given the tools, chemicals, and time, many infectious substances can be neutralized for purposes of disposal. In any case, once pre-treated and sealed for disposal, once infectious materials should never go into dumpsters where anyone might come into contact with such.

A last comment to help clarify this issue of biowaste versus biohazards. Anthrax is biohazardous to humans. Under no conditions can it be handled as biowaste like lawn clippings.

I know that I have played fast and loose with the above terms. I will tighten up this usage as times passes, but for now, this is where I am at. I know that "biowaste" and "solid waste" are one in the same in many or most cases. More on this will follow because there are serious cleaning issues and ethical issues involved with these terms and what they represent.

Eddie Evans
Crime Scene Cleanup