X-Message-Number: 32080
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:31:50 -0700
Subject: Sewers and biohazard waste
From: Keith Henson <>

In regard to the comments by Meloday and Tripper, I went looking since
it *has* been 20 years since employees of that mortuary in San
Francisco told me they just dumped HIV fluids down the drain and
government regulations change all the time.

I used these search terms 'osha regulations mortuary waste' in Google.
 The first thing that popped up was NATIONAL FUNERAL DIRECTORS
ASSOCIATION FUNERAL HOME MEDICAL WASTE  . . .

"The protocol recognizes that funeral directors discharge embalming
wastewater to publicly owned treatment works and to septic systems and
that if embalming products are properly handled, funeral homes
generally do not generate hazardous wastes regulated under RCRA"

"Embalming wastewater" is to say blood, fluid in, blood out.  It is
dated 2004.  There doesn't seem to be anything more recent.

More than once I added bleach when I was getting rid of fluids I knew
had HIV, but when you consider that every HIV patient sheds virus with
every bowel movement and that doesn't seem to cause any problems . . .
in retrospect it was a waste of bleach, the mortuary employees were
right and I was taking excessive precautions.

". . . unqualified people performing decapitations, with tools from
Sears. Unfortunately, I think that's a pretty accurate portrayal, but
much more importantly, I see no reason for the situation to remain
that way."

Ah . . . just who would be "qualified people" to perform decapitations?

I have seen (and done) this for a long time.  I can state that certain
tools from Sears (cleaned and included in the sterilized instrument
pack) are superior for this purpose in every way to any of the medical
instruments I have used or seen used.

Thanks for the comments,

Keith

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