By Goodman                                       H.B. No. 956

      75R4979 MI-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the definition of medical waste.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 361.560(3), Health and Safety Code, is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6                 (3)  "Medical waste" includes animal waste, bulk blood

 1-7     and blood products, microbiological waste, pathological waste,

 1-8     sharps, and special waste from health care-related facilities as

 1-9     those terms are defined in 25 TAC Section 1.132 (Tex. Dept. of

1-10     Health, Definition, Treatment, and Disposition of Special Waste

1-11     from Health Care-Related Facilities).  The term does not include

1-12     medical waste produced on farmland and ranchland as defined in

1-13     Section 252.001(6), Agriculture Code.  The term does not include

1-14     nonhuman materials removed from a patient and requested by the

1-15     patient, including but not limited to orthopedic devices and breast

1-16     implants.

1-17           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.