Iowa Code Title XI. Natural Resources [Chs. 455-485] § 455B.501. Regulation of infectious waste

a. “Contaminated animal carcasses” means waste including carcasses, body parts, and bedding of animals that were exposed to infectious agents during research, production of biologicals, or testing of pharmaceuticals.

b. “Contaminated sharps” means all discarded sharp items derived from patient care in medical, research, or industrial facilities including glass vials containing materials defined as infectious, hypodermic needles, scalpel blades, and pasteur pipettes.

c. “Cultures and stocks of infectious agents” means specimen cultures collected from medical and pathological laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories, wastes from the production of biological agents, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, or mix cultures.

d. “Human blood and blood products” means human serum, plasma, other blood components, bulk blood, or containerized blood in quantities greater than twenty milliliters.

e. “Infectious” means containing pathogens with sufficient virulence and quantity so that exposure to an infectious agent by a susceptible host could result in an infectious disease when the infectious agent is improperly treated, stored, transplanted, or disposed.

f. “Infectious waste” means waste, which is infectious, including but not limited to contaminated sharps, cultures, and stocks of infectious agents, blood and blood products, pathological waste, and contaminated animal carcasses from hospitals or research laboratories.

g. “Pathological waste” means human tissues and body parts that are removed during surgery or autopsy.