Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

At around 6:00 p.m. a land transport inspector at a waste sorting plant conducted a spot check of a semi-trailer delivering 62 bins of potentially infectious medical waste (PIMW) consisting of a total net weight of 3546 tonnes. The driver began unloading, weighing, and registering the bins as per the site unloading procedure. As he was doing so, the inspector noticed that some bins were open and that there was blood on the bins as well as on the ground. He told the driver to stop unloading and alerted site management. The driver and the PIMW officer put on the appropriate PPE and inspected the bins. They found fresh and dried blood stains on the truck’s wooden bed. The fresh blood was seeping through its upper wooden bed and onto its lower bed. The most contaminated bins (seven in all) were isolated. The 55 others were considered treatable although they were not in conformity with ADR requirements.

The next day, the regional health authority and the environmental inspectorate visited the site to cite the violations and monitor the disposal/clean-up operations. As per usual procedure, the PIMW officer washed the bins in the site’s automatic washer. The blood stains on their bottoms and lids had to subsequently be sprayed with a pressure washer and then run through a second cycle in the washer. The clean bins were sent through the usual bin storage circuit.

The site’s technicians correctly implemented its ‘accidental spill’ procedure, which was developed with the regional health authority after a similar case in 2015.

The incident was caused by a violation of transport rules by the carrier.