SEE UPDATE BELOW
Nothing says "you're special" like wrapping paper emblazoned with the international symbol for lethally toxic crap. $10 per four-sheet pack, and you can buy it online. The "skull" and "Happy Fucking Whatever!" motifs are pretty swank, too.
Link (Thanks, CJC)
Update: Biohazard wrapping paper is a bad idea! Bottom line: stick with the "happy fucking whatever" paper. BoingBoing reader Chris Davis writes,
I am not a trained first responder (IANATFR), but I've heard that when real, trained, first responders come across safety symbols – biohazard, nuke radiation, etc – they take them very very seriously.
So lets say you wrap your bottle of wine for the party host in the cool biohazard paper, and then get in a wreck on the way there. And the wine bottle breaks inside the box. The EMT gets to your car, sees a damaged box covered in biohazard symbols leaking fluid on the passenger seat, and makes a 180 out of there to call in the trained biohazard people, leaving you to fend for yourself. Oops..
I just called a firefighter friend, so he IS a trained first responder (IAATFR?). Turns out he just last week had a hazmat response training session. He said they use 'common sense' – so in my example above, they MIGHT go ahead and treat the injured, but it would probably set a chain of events in motion that would be a really big deal – guys in hazmat suits going over your car before you get it back, law enforcement asking a lot of pointed questions.. He emphasized that in this day and age, they do take this stuff seriously.
As he put it, 'Say you've got somebody you've got a problem with. Wrap a box of kleenex in that paper, throw it in his car, and drop a dime. He will never fuck with you again.' "
There are very specific laws regarding the disposal of biohazardous waste, if you mark you waste as such you are required to dispose of in that manner, since people at the dump don't really like to go digging through possibly biohazardous waste to make sure it's dangerous. The EPA (or public health dept) however absolutely will dig through it in order to place the blame on the (most often) company that violated the disposal laws. I used to work for a large commercial lab, and I've heard through people at other labs of stories where they look through everything to trace it back to the violator… I'm sure you wouldn't get a fine for actual dumping, but I wouldn't want to cause that sort of trouble. People working landfills are another group that doesn't like to see the biohazard sign.
