Household Medical Waste

This is in response to your letter concerning a provision in 49 CFR 173.134 that excepts waste transported from households from regulation under the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). You asked for a clarification of what constitutes household waste. You also asked us to explain why regulated medical waste (RMW) that is transported by a courier from a physician's office is regulated under the HMR but it is not regulated when generated by a home health care provider and discarded in household waste. I apologize for the delay in responding and any inconvenience this may have caused.

Household waste is not subject to the requirements in the HMR. (See § 173.134(b)(1)(V).) In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an interim final rule (54 FR 12326, 12339) that implemented a two-year demonstration program for regulating medical waste. EPA excluded from regulation medical waste from households, including that generated by a home health care provider. I have enclosed a copy of the preamble discussion on household waste that appeared in the EPA final rule. We agreed with EPA's position. When we amended our infectious substance requirements in the HMR and added a definition for RMW, we provided a similar exclusion for household waste (56 FR 66124, 66142).