The information that may be disclosed is specifically defined as names, residential addresses, county of residence, date of birth, gender, eye color, height, weight, and date of last activity. It has now been sent back to Senate Rules. Biomedical waste was also the subject of controversy in the Legislature. During the summer of 1998 a sub-committee of the Senate Agriculture and Ecology Committee studied the issue, primarily as a result of reported cases of tuberculosis in Lewis County where a biomedical waste treatment plant is located. They finalized their work by introducing several bills, and one measure directly impacted WBBA members who generate biomedical waste.
Current law defines cultures and stocks as laboratory wastes infectious to humans.
These wastes may contain high concentrations of pathogenic organisms, some of which are highly contagious and dangerous. The State and Territorial Association on Alternative Treatment Technologies has recommended a treatment standard to kill infectious agents. Neither generators of cultures and stocks nor biomedical waste treatment facilities may subject cultures to a process that generates or releases airborne pathogens from the waste before treatment. Cultures and stocks are defined as wastes infectious to humans requiring biosafety levels 3 or 4 practices. Definitions of biosafety levels 3 and 4 practices are referenced to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication.