Biomedical waste management

Biomedical Waste Management is governed by the legislation of individual country or state, which issues their own set of rules and regulations to manage such waste. Biomedical waste, also known as ‘Hospital waste’, is the waste which may contain infectious (or potentially infectious) materials. It can also include waste originating from the laboratory. However, it differs from the normal trash, kitchen waste or general waste. It also differs from other hazardous waste, such as chemical, radioactive, universal or industrial waste. Biomedical waste can be in any form or shape; solid, semi-solid or liquid. The waste generated from the hospitals is classified as, biomedical waste, general waste and other wastes. Biomedical waste management involves five steps: segregation, collection, pre-treatment, transportation and storage. Waste water generated from the hospital has to be treated properly before final disposal, failing which can result in serious adverse effect on the environment and cause infectious diseases in humans. Hence, Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP/STP) is used for removing organic matter and suspended solids from water before it is re-used in the hospital or discharged in the environment. Keywords • Legislation rules • Hospital waste • Colour coding • Packaging • Central collection • Record-keeping • Waste treatment • Adu RO, Gyasi SF, Essumang DK, Otabil KB. Medical Waste-Sorting and Management Practices in Five Hospitals in Ghana. J Environ Public Health. 2020 M...

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Waste produced in the healthcare sector may in significant part be considered as hazardous waste. The health and environmental risks caused by this waste can be well defined and the conditions for its management can be clearly separated from those of the waste generated in other areas. 1. Why do we have to devote much more attention to the hazardous medical waste disposal? According to the position statement by the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO), in 2000 the improper treatment of medical waste (primarily the use of infected hypodermic needles and syringes) caused the following infections worldwide: • hepatitis B: 21 million infections; • hepatitis C: 2 million infections; and • HIV: 260,000 infections. The above figures show how relevant appropriate medical waste treatment is. According to the WHO directive, hazardous waste should be processed as near to its place of generation as possible. The risks involved in the transportation of hazardous waste are large and the risk factor found in some materials (e.g. those that are infectious) increases daily. Suitably located and equipped waste disposal facilities can minimize the need to transport hazardous materials. (WHO publication, 2004) A lot of the waste from hospitals is infectious biological material or objects, which although they are considered “communal” waste, are in fact contaminated. These latter items include textiles, bandages, syringes, and other objects exposed to infection through contact with ...