While having lunch with some co-workers (mostly female) someone started a discussion about pregnancy. At one point Sally had mentioned that she had been born in her father’s car and my boss then asked “So how long did it take for the department of health to return the car?” We were all baffled. According to my boss, when a woman breaks her water or gives birth in any non-emergency vehicle the vehicle is impounded by the department of health for a mandatory “cleaning.” Apparently, this is the case because any substance from the human body is considered medical waste. No one present had ever heard of this practice. Later in the afternoon, we started to discuss it further. It sounded logical, who would make this up anyway? Once at home, I did some research on the net and I have been unable to find any proof that this true.
IIRC, when a friend of mine killed himself in his car, the car was returned to his widow, no health dept. cleaning. I know she’d gotten some estimates from some company about cleaning, but (this happened about 12 years ago), I think she ended up having to do it herself.
So if your little kid accidentally wets his pants in the car, does the health department impound it for a professional cleaning?
A couple people on message boards I post at gave birth in the car on the way to the hospital (in one case, in the hospital parking lot) and neither of them mentioned anything about having their car impounded. I suspect urban legend.
This is a bit tangential but body fluids can be considered hazardous waste. When I took a CCW class the lawer doing one of the sessions talked about the ramifications of a defensive shooting in ones home, one thing being that the homeowner may have to pay for hazmat folks to do the cleanup. Of course that’s talking about lots of blood and body tissue. I suspect the health department impounding is more UL but have no cites contrary.
I can speak from semipersonal experience here. My Brother-in-law and sister delivered my niece in her car, and it was not impounded. Extra bonus information, while my niece was born in the car, the placenta was not delivered until they arrived at the hospital so the birth certificate reads that she was born at the hospital instead of Exxon as I had secretly hoped.
-Lil
I can see it being impounded if it was a public transit type vehicle (not only buses), but why would they impound a privately owned vehicle? Makes no sense to me. For example, say I was in labor and I actually had to try and drive myself to the hospital, but I couldn’t make it and baby came out in the front seat…it may be bodily fluids, but it’s my bodily fluids…why would anyone else have any business with my car?
AFAIK, blood and stuff have to be cleaned up oftentimes by HazMat teams and/or firefighters (my ex is a FF, and explained some of this to me), but that’s usually in the cases where there was a really bad car accident and blood is all over the road/sidewalk/etc, or at the scene of a jumper. I just can’t see the DoH getting involved in a privately owned car.
Tangent here, but last year (or thereabouts) public radio had a profile of two women who ran a business that cleaned up difficult things like murder scenes, sites where bodies weren’t discovered for days, etc. It was an eerie grim story, but interesting. Anyway, they were a private firm, and they talked about what a terrible hardship it can be for families whose loved ones have committed suicide in some messy way. No public safety organization cleans it, other than the evidence-gatherine.
Yeah, it is, but what I meant (not clear enough, I guess :o ), is that it’s still only my blood in my car, and not necessarily splattered around like in the event of a car crash or a jumper (where other people may come across it).
Not entirely true - they ARE considered biohazards, and should be handled using Universal Precautions. There’s just no need to dispose of them in a special manner, at least ordinarily, because the sewer system, where these ordinarily end up, is ALREADY set up to decontaminate the waste-carrying water safely. Regulations for disposal of medical waste exist primarily to handle things that DON"T ordinarily get disposed of by flushing them down the toilet - such as used bandages and sharps.
Of course they are considered biohazards. But not considered “medical waste” at least in my neck of the woods - and not regulated by the health department. Unless folks want their balloon knot cleaned by the HazMat men.
<breaking into song> HazMat men, HazMat men!!! - of camera a horse farts <breaking out of song>
Okay if it’s MY car and MY water breaking I understand, but say I picked up some pregnant hitchhiker on the Belt Parkway (not that I would, but let us use this as an example). What then?
Come on folks - my co-workers are aniticipating a valid answer and I promised you guys & gals could do it.
My first wife’s water broke on the way to the hospital. It was almost 12 hours later before I could do anything about it. I tried all sorts of cleaning products but nothing worked. I had to have the seat reupholstered and replace the carpeting.
Why would it make a difference that it’s in the car; for many people, the waters break at home, in bed or somewhere else in the house; does the department of health seal off your house until it is cleaned up? I can’t speak for the USA, but there’s nothing remotely like what you describe over here in the UK (with our second child, the waters did break in the car on the way to the hospital; nobody was interested in the slightest.
I’d venture that your co-worker is either misinformed, pulling your leg or extrapolating out some very unusual case to be the norm.
For what it’s worth I’d just like to say that in all the childbirth classes my wife and I attended, and in which the delivery-in-the-car scenario was discussed at much length, not one person ever mentioned that your car might be impounded.
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And our second child very nearly was born in the car on the way there, but that’s another story.
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