How Hospitals get rid of Their Medical Waste
8/13/2020
Although healthcare services and activities are important for preventing and managing diseases, reducing premature death and unnecessary disability, promoting, and maintaining the health of the public, there are unavoidable costs and by-products: healthcare wastes.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15% of the waste generated by health care activities is considered hazardous material that may be toxic, infectious, or radioactive. 85% of these wastes are general and non-hazardous waste. Disposal of this waste is an environmental issue as this hazardous waste could potentially cause the spread of infectious diseases. Thus, proper healthcare waste disposal is a must.
There are different healthcare waste disposal methods that the hospitals and healthcare providers can choose from.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15% of the waste generated by health care activities is considered hazardous material that may be toxic, infectious, or radioactive. 85% of these wastes are general and non-hazardous waste. Disposal of this waste is an environmental issue as this hazardous waste could potentially cause the spread of infectious diseases. Thus, proper healthcare waste disposal is a must.
There are different healthcare waste disposal methods that the hospitals and healthcare providers can choose from.
Incineration: This treatment process involves the burning of waste materials. It transforms the waste into ashes, flue gas, heat.
Autoclaving: This thermal treatment is used to sterilize infectious waste. It utilizes high temperatures and steam to kill any microorganisms in all the materials. The decontaminated materials can be handed over to an offsite truck service for proper disposal.
Chemical Treatment: This method is often used for liquid hospital waste. Chemicals like sodium hydroxide, calcium oxide, or chlorine can be used, depending on the type of hospital waste. It is recommended that this treatment should be done on-site or rather to a close generation site as liquids are highly susceptible to spills.
Microwave Treatment: Similar to autoclave and incineration, microwave treatment, also uses heat to treat medical waste. The difference is, it uses radiation rather than direct combustion, as in case of incineration, or steam, as in case of an autoclave. Microwave treatment only works when there is water in the waste as the radiation does not work on the solid component of the waste.
Hospitals use different ways to get rid of their waste. The main point here is to get rid of it as safely as possible to reduce harm to the environment and the health of the people as well.