Lower Merion, PA Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

Section 90-4.6.I(5) of the Health Code requires that every needle used in body piercing or tattooing be presterilized, used on only one person in one sitting, and immediately disposed of in a medical sharps container; the same subsection requires reusable forceps and tubes to be stored in sterile bags and autoclaved after a single use. Subsection J, Disposal of waste, sets three further rules operators must follow: needles may not be bent or broken before disposal and operators must take precautions against injury from contaminated sharps; needles must go directly into a solid, puncture-resistant container; and needles, single-use gloves, gauze and other blood-saturated materials must be bagged in plastic, boxed in cardboard, and removed off-site only under a written agreement with an authorized medical-waste disposal service.

Section 90-4.6.K separately bars any practitioner with a communicable disease, listing conditions from hepatitis to tuberculosis, from performing a procedure until cleared. These sharps-handling rules sit inside the licensing article added by Ordinance No. 3909 in 2010 and enforced by the Health Officer and Health Advisory Council, who inspect premises under § 90-4.11 and can require sterilization logs, including weekly spore-test records kept under § 90-4.6.I(3)(c). Because the rules are written into the operator's license conditions, failing to follow the sharps-disposal steps is treated the same as any other licensing violation: it can support a notice of violation, a hearing before the Board of Commissioners, and suspension or revocation of the tattoo or piercing license under § 90-4.8, independent of any state medical-waste enforcement.