# Bio Hazardous Material?What is Bio Hazardous Material? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 10, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683 "2005-06-10T02:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/1 "2005-06-10T02:30:14Z")
What is Bio Hazardous Material? The tiolets at work say that you must not dispose of Bio Hazardous Material in any receptacle in the restroom. What are they trying to prevent? They also say no other item except toilet paper should be put in the toilets. I would have thought turds are items, but at least with that sign I can guess they are trying to prevent women from flushing pads and even tampons and applicators. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/2 "2005-06-10T02:34:56Z")
Biohazards can include syringes (even the ones used by diabetics) old dressings from wounds, the packing your oral surgeon stuffed your mouth with after he extracted that wisdom tooth, and anything else that comes in contact with ooky bodily things. What they’re trying to prevent is the accidental needle-stick or someone getting a discarded dressing rubbed against an open cut, etc. In a doctor’s office or hospital, biohazards get put in a special trash can, those who empty it wear gloves, and the entire mess gets incinerated rather than buried in a landfill. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/3 "2005-06-10T02:39:53Z")
Should they be able to throw cancerous organs down the toliet? How about cholera or TB infected dressings? Would you like to see your loved ones amputed toe show up on eBay? There has to be some level of control or dipshits will try to get away with anything. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/4 "2005-06-10T02:43:52Z")
Where do you work? That might help us to explain what is trying to be prevented? ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/5 "2005-06-10T03:15:36Z")
I work in a office building in the loop. I don’t work with a healthcare industry firm, and the whole floor is strictly for my company’s use. Wouldn’t used pads be biohazardous materials then? What do they want us to do with them, stick them in out pockets until we get home? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/6 "2005-06-10T03:25:49Z")
Technically, a used pad is a biohazard, as it carries whatever BBP or Blood Borne Pathogen the user may have. Realistically, a used band-aid is a biohazard for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/7 "2005-06-10T03:34:16Z")
Well, most human waste is a bio-hazard. You can’t tell someone who is sick not to take a dump. They just don’t want corporations like hospitals, nursing homes, or drug manufacturers taking advantage of the pubic sewer. So even small places have to post the signs to be in compliance with the “law”. Go ahead and flush that tampoon, nobody is “really” watching, or cares. ---
**Author:** ![Toddly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/8 "2005-06-10T03:45:21Z")
> [@Si Amigo](#): > > Well, most human waste is a bio-hazard. You can’t tell someone who is sick not to take a dump. They just don’t want corporations like hospitals, nursing homes, or drug manufacturers taking advantage of the pubic sewer. So even small places have to post the signs to be in compliance with the “law”. Go ahead and flush that tampoon, nobody is “really” watching, or cares. Don’t flush tampons. Those things screw up more toilets around here and we gotta clear them out all the time. Usually there is a separate container in the stall for disposal. The bio hazardous waste here is collected, then autoclaved and taken to a landfill. Body parts and chemo waste is collected separtely and they are incinerated. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/9 "2005-06-10T03:50:49Z")
> [@Toddly](#): > > Don’t flush tampons. Those things screw up more toilets around here and we gotta clear them out all the time. Usually there is a separate container in the stall for disposal. The bio hazardous waste here is collected, then autoclaved and taken to a landfill. Body parts and chemo waste is collected separtely and they are incinerated. Like I haven’t told my girl that before . . . but does she listen to me? No! :smack: Perhaps she will repsect advice from someone she dosen’t know. That’s usually the case. 😉 Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/10 "2005-06-10T10:47:01Z")
This is not a hospital, nor does the floor contain doctor’s offices. Tampons and even some applicators are designed to be flushed, but they can do a number on the plumbing and so I don’t flush them in public toilets, especially ones that post signs that say not to flush anything but toilet paper. It seem that the biohazard sign would mean that you are not supposed to throw them in the trash, and oddly enough the little waste containers in the stalls do have neither the pictogram for disposal of feminine hygene products nor the words indicating that is what they are for. Surely that can’t be what they are trying to get to happen? If it is just an attempt to get people not to dispose of sharps, why can’t they say so? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-hazardous-material-what-is-bio-hazardous-material/307683/11 "2005-06-10T16:14:38Z")
Stating sharps only is not inclusive enough, I suppose. Or the building maintenace guys were told to buy some signs and not knowning exactly what they needed, they bought something generic. > [@](#): > > I work in a office building in the loop. I don’t work with a healthcare industry firm, and the whole floor is strictly for my company’s use. Who else is in the building? Again, the maintenance staff may have simply purchased and installed signs for every lavatory in the building when they did this. They can’t tell who might be the tenant of a particular suite in x number of years down the road.