Medical Waste Management - Main Features and Approaches

Medical waste refers to the hazardous waste• The squander generated in food processing
material generated as a result of healthcare activities.which does not contain blood, infectious agents or
This waste remains an issue both for public healthblood products.
and the environment. The management of the same4. There are certain methods approved for the
is a technique adopted in hospitals to reduce themanagement of medical dissipate. They include:
squander generated and find ways to recycle this• Steam sterilization
material in order to lower the disposal costs and new• Microwave technology
material expenses.• Incineration
The main features and approaches of Medical Waste• Generators
Management are:It has become necessary to manage medical
1. All forms of medical dissipate left after thesquanders since exposure to these infectious agents
performance of healthcare activities should beor bio hazardous materials can lead to causing
treated before being disposed.diseases. The process for handling sharps is reusable
2. Medical squanders include bio-hazardous and sharpsharps containers. These containers are taken to a
materials like needles, syringes generated as a resultpermitted medical waste transfer station or off-site
of:treatment facility for processing. These containers
• Diagnosiscan reduce the medical squander stream by removing
• Treatmentthe weight of the single-use container.
• Production or testing of biologicalA medical waste may be discharged without
• Immunizationtreatment to a public sewage system if it is not bio
3. Medical waste should not be confused with:hazardous material. It can be liquid or semi liquid but
• Medical solid elements like paper towels, cottonshould not contain any hazardous gases, infectious
as they are not bio-hazardous.agents, blood or blood products. The liquid may be
• Household wastetreated by a chemical disinfection process before
• The excretes generated from livestockbeing discharged in case it contains bio hazardous
management on farmswaste material.