“Government and other private sectors should invest enough fund for research and development for the better machines and equipment that can be used to dispose these ever growing waste.”
Gist
Medical waste (MW) is all waste materials generated at health care facilities. MW naturally is hazardous for environment and subsequently for human. Waste minimization (WM) is the latest alternative for risk reduction and future problems in terms of diseases and management. All hospital staff generally and nurses specially can play an active role through education and the implementation of measures to reduce medical wastage and their environmental effects.
Waste disposal of the materials being coming out of the ever increasing hospitals and small setups have increased at an unimaginable rate to serve the increasing population of India.
It has been attested that the hospitals are unable to manage the wasted being generated in their day to day routine, and it has resulted into fines also being imposed on hospital management by medical waste verification departments. It is not wrong to accept that the problem has indeed crossed the limit and has resulted into mismanagement of the waste.
This problem is not going to be permanent and tough, if hospital staff and nurses have been trained to use instruments and other dressing materials judicially. Proper training and education for medical waste generation and its affect in environment and human if not handled carefully should be given to all healthcare professionals.
Biomedical Waste:
Increased standard of living is creating a great risk to the environment by generating a large quantity of waste. Medical waste (MW) is all waste materials generated at health care facilities, such as hospitals, clinics, physician’s offices and so on dental practices, blood banks, and veterinary hospitals/clinics, as well as medical research facilities and laboratories.
Today medical waste management is a crucial public health and environmental issue because poor medical waste management unquestionably exposes healthcare workers, waste handlers, and the community to infections, toxic effects, and injuries. The main portion of MW is nonhazardous. But still it can lead to many serious complications if ignored on daily basis.
Although the infectious and hazardous waste have a small portion in MW, improper medical waste management, and mixing infectious waste with the general waste, can lead to the entire bulk of waste becoming potentially hazardous.
If we want to improve standards of waste management in hospitals it should be initiated from personnel. In other words all of the hospital personnel are considered as a team for waste management. As WHO said, Good health care waste management in a hospital depends on a dedicated waste management team, good administration, careful planning, sound organization, underpinning legislation, adequate financing, and full participation by trained staff.
Waste minimization means the reduction, to the extent feasible, in the amount of hazardous waste generated prior to any treatment, storage, or disposal of the waste. Because waste minimization efforts eliminate waste before it is generated, disposal costs may be reduced, and the impact on the environment may be lessened.
Regulations:
Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) rules, 1998 of India “Any waste which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biological.”
The government of India (notification, 1998) specifies that Hospital Waste Management is a part
of hospital hygiene and maintenance activities. This involves managements of many activities that are mainly engineering functions, such collection, dispensing, transportation, operation or treatment of processing systems and disposal of various wastes.
World Health Organization (WHO) states that 85% of hospital wastes are actually nonhazardous, whereas 10% are infectious and 5% are non-infectious but they are included in hazardous wastes. About 15% to 35% of Hospital waste is regulated as infectious waste. This range is dependent on the total amount of waste generated (Glenn and Garwal, 1999).
Problem:
Hospitals and other healthcare establishments have a “duty of care” for the environment and for public health, and hospital administrations and team also have particular responsibilities in relation to the waste they produce (i.e., biomedical waste). Negligence, in terms of biomedical waste management, significantly contributes to polluting the environment, affects the health of human beings, and depletes natural and financial resources. In India, in view of the serious situation of biomedical waste management, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, within the Government of India, signed the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, in July 1998. Just to curb the danger of increasing biomedical waste management.
The objective behind this study was to analyse the biomedical waste management system, including policy, practice (i.e., storage, collection, transportation and disposal), and compliance with the standards prescribed under the regulatory framework.
The analysis was carried out with the help of medical authorities, doctors and paramedical staff involved in the management of the biomedical wastes in hospital. A Study on Waste Disposal Management in a Hospital and Recommendations for Safe Disposal It is not wrong to say that, if every staff and other members trained and shared the importance of using biomedical products judiciously and at the same time dumping the same carefully will definitely reduce the quantity of waste production from hospital and steps taken for safe disposal will help them reducing the burden on other teams and agencies who collects and dump the waste.
More on it, the expansion of healthcare facilities and small to big centers as well as recent trend of using the disposables has led to a new and complicated burden of healthcare related waste. It has been documented that for the last three decades, unregulated handling of biomedical waste is emerging as a serious threat to human health and safety, and many researchers have documented this as a priority area too in near future. The concern over severe and chances of getting infectious diseases and other blood born infections has led to an increased professional and environmental activism towards this issue.
Recommendation:
Development of infrastructure for the safe disposal and recycling for hazardous materials
There was little or no observable capacity for the management, treatment, recycling or final disposal of hazardous wastes in most countries (e.g. chemicals, mercury, and batteries). Hospitals seeking to segregate hazardous wastes are left with little or no option for safe disposal. The development of an industry which is capable of managing hazardous waste (chemicals) is essential. On-site reprocessing technology is available for hospitals for materials such as xylene or formalin, and recovery technology for silver from developing solution. These technologies may be cost prohibitive at this time. Pollution prevention and the choice of nonhazardous or less hazardous material is the only real option left to hospitals, which should be followed regardless of the existence of a hazardous waste industry.
Hazardous waste stream
Specific waste streams that any hospital or health care facility must examine in its assessment
and planning process include:
-Chemotherapy and antineoplastic chemicals
-Formaldehyde
-Photographic Chemicals
-Solvents
-Anesthetic Gases
-Ethylene Oxide
-Disinfecting Cleaning Solutions
-Maintenance: Waste Oil Cleaning solvents Leftover Paints Spent florescent lamps Degreasers Paint Thinner Gasoline
Safe disposal system for municipal waste
It should be bring into practice that safe disposal guidelines should be followed up properly by every hospital and other healthcare centers. If followed properly as per the standards and regulations, the problem of increasing waste disposal mismanagement can be reduced. Municipal and other sectors should keep track of their regions generated waste quantity and regular monitoring should be done.
Conclusion:
Medical wastes generated from hospitals and other centers should be classified according to their source of generation, typology and risk factors associated with their handling, storage, transportation and ultimate disposal. The segregation of waste at source is the main job and reduction, reuse and recycling should be considered in proper perspectives.
We need to consider innovative and radical measures to clean up the distressing picture of lack of civic concern on the part of hospitals and lags in government implementation of bare minimum of rules, as waste generation particularly biomedical waste imposes increasing direct and indirect costs on society.
The challenge before us, therefore, is to scientifically manage growing quantities of biomedical waste that go beyond past practices. If we want to protect our environment and health of community we must sensitize ourselves to this important issue not only in the interest of health managers but also in the interest of community.
Future enhancements:
Government and other private sectors should invest enough fund for research and development for the better machines and equipment that can be used to dispose these ever growing waste. And proper attention should be given to develop materials and instruments that should add less amount of burden in the collection of hospital waste.
