The Environmental Protection Agency is updating standards governing the management and disposal of healthcare-generated hazardous waste pharmaceuticals, according an article on the FacilityCare website.
Disposing of pharmaceuticals regulated as hazardous waste posed a problem for facilities, the article said.
A healthcare facility can have thousands of items in its formulary, making it difficult to know which ones are hazardous wastes, the EPA said.
According to EPA, the new effort is a continuation of a December 2008 proposal.
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