Washington does not issue a separate biohazard-cleanup license. Instead, a company doing this work should follow the federal and state bloodborne pathogens rules, work to the IICRC S540 standard, hold a state business license, and register with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries1 (L&I) when the job alters or repairs the building. Biohazard Network connects you with independent local companies and does not do the work, so this guide explains what to ask any company before you hire it.
The federal bloodborne pathogens standard
A biohazard is blood, body fluid or other material that may carry germs. Bloodborne pathogens are disease-causing germs carried in blood. OSHA’s standard 29 CFR 1910.1030, titled “Bloodborne pathogens,” applies to all occupational exposure to blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM), a term for body fluids and materials besides blood that may carry infection. Occupational exposure means contact with blood or OPIM that can reasonably be expected from an employee’s job, through the skin, eyes, mouth or nose, or a break in the skin. Each employer with exposed employees must keep a written Exposure Control Plan to eliminate or minimize exposure, offer the hepatitis B vaccine series, and provide follow-up after an exposure incident.
Washington’s rule and the state plan
OSHA says the Washington State Plan is administered by the Department of Labor and Industries, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). Its rules must be at least as effective as OSHA’s, and Washington may set stricter protections. Washington’s bloodborne rule is Chapter 296-823 WAC, Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens. It requires employers to keep a written exposure control plan, make hepatitis B vaccination available, handle regulated waste safely, provide personal protective equipment and make sure it is used, and offer a confidential medical evaluation after an exposure incident. L&I also lists training with training records. The rule applies even before any exposure happens, and its example jobs, such as hotel and motel employees who clean up blood, are not a complete list. Ask a company to describe its exposure control plan and its training records.
The IICRC S540 standard
The IICRC (Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification) is a non-profit organization for the inspection, cleaning and restoration industries. Its ANSI/IICRC S540 Standard for Trauma and Crime Scene Cleanup, now in its Second Edition, 2023, describes procedures and precautions for this work on any surface, item or location. Its topics include inspecting blood and OPIM contamination, setting a work plan, safety and health, antimicrobial biocide technology (germ-killing products), packaging and disposal of regulated waste, and confirmation of cleaning. S540 assumes law enforcement or a regulatory agency has released the scene first; scene release is when the agency in charge hands the property back. IICRC calls its standards voluntary and consensus-based, accepted as the standard of care in the industry.
IICRC’s Trauma and Crime Scene Technician (TCST) certification is based on S540 and has no prerequisites. Ask whether a company’s workers hold it, and ask to see proof.
Standards that may come next
A home may also need restoration, meaning repair back to normal use. IICRC publishes the ANSI/IICRC S500 Standard for Professional Water Damage Restoration, the ANSI/IICRC S520 Standard for Professional Mold Remediation, and the ANSI/IICRC S700 Standard for Professional Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration. Remediation means removing a contamination problem. Read how biohazard cleanup fits with water, fire and mold restoration.
What “licensed” means in Washington
No state license exists just for biohazard cleanup. The Washington Department of Revenue says to register and get a business license if any of its listed conditions apply, and a licensed business receives a Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number.
L&I1 contractor registration is the second piece. RCW 18.27.010 defines a contractor to include an independent business that offers to alter, repair, subtract from, improve or demolish a building or other structure attached to real estate. So ask about registration if the job means removing or rebuilding parts of the home. RCW 18.27.020 requires every contractor to register and makes it a gross misdemeanor to advertise, bid or work as a contractor without registering. L&I says state law also requires contractors to be bonded and insured, in the exact business name. A person working on his or her own property is exempt. Asbestos work needs its own L&I training and certification.
When Biohazard Network calls a company licensed, it means an active Washington business license and L&I1 contractor registration where the work requires it.
The Washington State Department of Health2 (DOH) offers a separate Drug Lab Cleanup Certification. Workers, supervisors and contractors decontaminating a clandestine drug lab must be certified through DOH’s Drug Lab Cleanup Program3, and a certified contractor must first be licensed, bonded and insured as a Washington State General Contractor through L&I.
Checking L&I’s records
L&I4’s Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business4 tool shows whether a business has an active contractor registration and an active, paid-up workers’ comp account covering any employees. Search the exact name on the estimate.
How biomedical waste is handled and hauled
Biomedical waste is waste regulated under Chapter 70A.228 RCW, and RCW 70A.228.010 limits it to listed types. These include human blood and blood products, and sharps waste, meaning needles, syringes, scalpel blades and lancets taken out of their sterile packaging. That state definition overrides local ones, while local control of how the waste is managed is preserved.
Under RCW 81.77.040, a company needs a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission5 (UTC) before hauling solid waste for pay. UTC rules require a biomedical waste operating plan that keeps this waste separate from other solid waste and lets only authorized, properly trained people handle it.
Questions to ask a company
- What is your UBI number and exact business name?
- Are you registered with L&I1, with bond and insurance in that name?
- Can you describe your exposure control plan and training records?
- Do you follow ANSI/IICRC S540, and do your workers hold TCST certification?
- Who hauls the biomedical waste, and does that hauler hold a UTC5 certificate?
- For a suspected drug lab, are you certified through DOH2’s Drug Lab Cleanup Program3?
- If building materials come out, who arranges a good faith asbestos inspection by an accredited inspector?
- How will you confirm the cleaning is complete?
Laws other pages mention
- Contractor registration: RCW 18.27.020
- Biomedical waste definition: RCW 70A.228.010
- Solid waste hauling certificates: RCW 81.77.040
- Local health officer’s powers, including abating public health nuisances: RCW 70.05.070
- Local ordinances on unfit dwellings: RCW 35.80.030
- Deaths under the coroner’s or medical examiner’s jurisdiction: RCW 68.50.010
- A tenant’s death and the tenant’s belongings: RCW 59.18.595
- Self-neglect of a vulnerable adult: RCW 74.34.020
- Seizure of neglected animals: RCW 16.52.085
- Drug lab and contaminated property cleanup: chapter 64.44 RCW
- Good faith asbestos inspection: WAC 296-62-07721