Parents--why it is now legal to put your child's nappy in the dustbin

Notifiable diseases in England and Wales include cholera, plague, relapsing fever, smallpox, typhus and food poisoning. S 26(1) of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 Part II made it a criminal offence to place material which is known to have been exposed to infection from a notifiable disease or one of a number of additional diseases, and which has not been disinfected, in a dustbin. One such potential infection risk that is often placed in dustbins is the disposable nappy, particularly from children who are suffering from gastroenteritis.

A literature review was undertaken using PubMed on the relationship between nappies and the transmission of infectious disease.

The literature review did not reveal any evidence of notifiable disease transmission through discarded nappies in dustbins.

As a result of a recent review, Part II of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 has now been replaced by Part IIA by virtue of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and so s 26(1) no longer applies. This is both an evidence-based decision and more importantly, decriminalizes thousands of parents who decide to discard their baby's nappy in the dustbin.