Biohazardous Waste Management of Funeral Homes

18 Jun Biohazardous Waste Management of Funeral Homes

Managing Biohazardous Waste from Funeral Homes

Whenever the term ‘medical waste’ is mentioned, many people think about healthcare facilities. Why? Because it is evident that the most facilitative place to contact a communicable disease or an infection is where those diseases and infections are treated. However, healthcare facilities are not the only places where medical waste is generated. Other sites where medical waste is produced daily are veterinarian offices, dental clinics, and funeral homes. Funeral homes, much like hospitals, generate a concerning amount of biohazardous waste that poses a real threat if not taken care of properly. Outlined below are the types of waste generated as well as the necessary precautions for waste disposal.

Types of Medical Waste in Funeral Homes

When people die, the first place they go to after leaving either the hospital or morgue is funeral homes where they are prepared and processed for burial or cremation. Funeral homes work with the family of the deceased to either embalm or cremate the body for memorial viewings. As a result of this, funeral homes manage an abundance of dead bodies, many of which have passed away for different reasons. Biomedical waste (biohazardous waste) in a funeral home include:

Blood and Other Body Fluids

Funeral homes carry out processes such as embalming the dead bodies before burial. The method of embalming involves the removal of blood and lymph from the body by pumping them out. These fluids are then replaced with formaldehyde solution (usually referred to as embalming fluid or formalin). This solution is meant to preserve the body and prevent it from decaying until after burial processions. However, the blood and other body fluids that are extracted during this process are flushed down the drain, entering the sewage system to be treated by the wastewater treatment system. A funeral home must find out if the water treatment system in their municipal area makes room for the disposal of biological wastes in this manner.

Natural Gas

Another way of dealing with the human body after death is through cremation, where natural gas or propane is used to heat the human body until what remains is calcified. The temperature used in cremating a body is more than 1000 degrees Fahrenheit and takes several hours before cremation is achieved. After this, only ashes remain. The natural gas used in this process is very harmful to humans. A funeral home needs to rely upon a scubber in their cremators for the sole purpose of stopping the gas and smoke from escaping outwardly.

Alkaline Solution

This is used mostly in what is sometimes called flameless or green cremation. The medical name is alkaline hydrolysis, and it involves breaking down body tissues with the use of a heated alkaline solution.

This method of body disposal is very eco-friendly, but it also leaves behind filtrate. The filtrate is produced from the addition of acid to what remains of the alkaline solution. This filtrate is harmful to humans and is often flushed down the drain. If the wastewater system does not treat biological fluid before sending the water out, you risk harming many people.

Hazardous Materials

Most funeral homes have contracts with waste management companies specializing in the disposal of waste products that cannot be flushed down the drain or toilet. However, it is also important that the funeral home ensures that every harmful product or hazardous materials used in the establishment are not displayed in easily acceptable areas where accidental exposure to the aforementioned biohazardous waste can occur.

Sharp Objects

Like healthcare facilities, funeral homes also use objects such as lancets, scissors, scalpels, and other cutting instruments that can pierce through the skin in whatever capacity that’s necessary. These sharps are not meant to be thrown into the waste bin. Instead, they are intended to be collected before the contracted waste management companies come to take them away.

Additionally, any PPE gear that encounters biohazardous waste requires proper collection and disposal. Bandages, gauze, gloves, masks, etc. all risk contaminating the soil with leachates from cadavers.

 

In conclusion, there are many varying aspects of biohazardous waste generated from the daily operations of funeral homes. These operational by-products can have tremendous harm to the well-being of those who come into accidental contact with said waste. There are also environmental impacts to consider towards the water and soil nearby funeral homes. BioSecure Waste Solutions can guarantee everyone’s safety in the management and handling of hazardous waste, especially such waste generated daily by funeral homes.