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The people chiefly at risk are clinicians and medical staff. Waste handlers are at some risk, while members of the general public face little or no risk. All the hazards can be sufficiently managed by well understood procedures of infection control and risk management. These procedures rest crucially on the competence of the control of infection team, and their ability to influence others towards methods that are adequate and effective without being extravagent.

Clinical waste is defined in the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 as:

• human and animal tissue, or blood or other bodily fluids, or excretions, and drugs or other pharmaceuticals
• swabs or dressings syringes, needles or other sharp instruments, which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person coming into contact with it
• any other waste arising from medical, nursing, dental, veterinary, pharmaceutical or similar practice, investigation, treatment, care, teaching or research, or the collection of blood for transfusion, being waste which may cause infection to any person coming into contact with it

Some clinical waste is classified as hazardous waste. These wastes are subject to additional controls under the Hazardous Waste Regulations. For example, waste prescription-only medicines are considered hazardous waste. See Appendix B, Section 18 of the regulatory agencies' Hazardous Waste Technical Guidance WM2 document for guidance on which clinical wastes are classified as hazardous.