Pennsylvania Statutes Title 35 P.S. Health and Safety § 6019.1. Findings

The General Assembly finds that the legitimate public health concerns of the Commonwealth require the review and adoption of regulations providing standards for the collection, transportation, processing, storage and incineration or other disposal of infectious and chemotherapeutic wastes.  The public health, safety and welfare will be served by the development and implementation of a comprehensive, Statewide plan and regulation addressing the present and future needs of this Commonwealth with regard to the incineration and disposal of infectious and chemotherapeutic wastes as well as by the acknowledgment of the public's need for medical treatment and diagnosis at hospitals and supporting clinical testing laboratories, which necessarily generate infectious and chemotherapeutic wastes while furnishing such needed service.  The General Assembly also finds that the future construction and operation of facilities proposed to be used for the incineration and disposal of infectious or chemotherapeutic wastes should comply and conform with the aforementioned regulations and Statewide plan.  The General Assembly further finds that infectious and chemotherapeutic wastes by their very nature cannot be recycled and that such wastes are best managed at the place of generation with a minimum of transportation through this Commonwealth and exposure to the public and that such wastes are best managed, processed and disposed of and rendered harmless by means of current state-of-the-art high-temperature incineration.