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Health Care Waste Management

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Nherines Montemayor
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9 views6 pages

Health Care Waste Management

Uploaded by

Nherines Montemayor
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HEALTH CARE WASTE MANAGEMENT

Health care wastes refer to all solid, or liquid wastes generated by any of the following
activities:
1. Diagnosis, treatment, and immunization of humans
2. Research pertaining to diagnosis, treatment, and immunization of humans;
3. Research using laboratory animals geared towards improvement of human health;
4. Production and testing of biological products
5. Other activities performed by a health care facility that generates wastes

Categories of Health Care Wastes


1. Infectious Wastes – refers to all wastes suspected to contain pathogens or toxins in
sufficient concentration that may cause disease to a susceptible host
Examples:
 Discarded microbial cultures
 Solid wastes: Dressings, sputum cups, urine containers, blood bags
 Liquid wastes: blood, urine, vomitus, other body secretions
 Food wastes coming from patients with highly infectious diseases

2. Pathological and Anatomical Waste – refers to tissue sections and body fluids or
organs derived from biopsies, autopsies, or surgical procedures sent to the
laboratory for examination.
Examples:
 Internal organs and tissues used for histopathological examination
Anatomical waste – subgroup of pathological waste that refers to recognizable
body parts usually from amputation procedures

3. Sharps – refer to waste items that can cause cuts, pricks, or puncture wounds
- Considered the MOST DANGEROUS health care waste because of their
potential to cause both injury and infection.
Examples:
 Syringe
 Lancets
 Surgical knives
 Broken Glasswares

4. Chemical Waste – refers to discarded chemicals (solid, liquid or gaseous)


generated during disinfection and sterilization procedures. It includes wastes with
high content of heavy metals
Examples:
 Laboratory reagents
 X-ray film developing solutions
 Disinfectants and soaking solutions
 Used batteries and mercury from broken thermometers
Chemicals are considered hazardous when they are:
 Toxic
 Corrosive (acid of ph <2.0 and bases of pH >12.0)
 Flammable (with a flash point below 60°C)
 Reactive (explosive with water)

5. Pharmaceutical Waste – refers to expired, spilt, and contaminated pharmaceutical


products, drugs, and vaccines including discarded items used in handling
pharmaceuticals
Examples:
 Empty drug vials
 Medicine bottles
 Containers of cytotoxic drugs

6. Radioactive Waste – refers to wastes exposed to radionuclides including


radioactive diagnostic materials or radiotherapeutic materials
Examples:
 Cobalt (Co 90)
 Technetium (99 Tc)
 Iodine (131 I)
 Iridium (192 Ir)

7. Non-hazardous or General Waste – refers to wastes that have not been in contact
with communicable or infectious agents, hazardous chemical, or radioactive
substances and do not pose a hazard
Examples:
 Plastic bottles
 Used paper products
 Office wastes
 Scrap wood
 Food waste of non-infectious patients
Health Care Waste Management System
Most Preferable

Prevent Green
Procurement
Reduce

Reuse

Recycle Resource
Development
Recover

Treat
End of Pipe
Dispose
Least Preferable

Green Procurement Policy:


Waste minimization – most important step in the proper management of health care
wastes
1. Waste Prevention
2. Waste Reduction

Resource Development:
1. Reusing – refers to either finding a new application for a used material or using
same product for the same application repeatedly
2. Recycling – refers to the processing of used materials into new products
3. Recovery
 Energy recovery – waste is converted to fuel for generating electricity or for
direct heating of premises
 Used to encompass three subsets of waste recovery: RECYCLING, COMPOSTING,
ENERGY RECOVERY

End of Pipe: for wastes that cannot be safely reused, recycled, or recovered
1. Waste Treatment – process of changing the biological and chemical characteristics
of waste to minimize its potential to cause harm
2. Waste Disposal – refers to discharging, depositing, placing, or releasing any health
care waste into air, land, or water

SEGREGATION, COLLECTION, STORAGE, AND TRANSPORT OF HEALTH CARE WASTES

Segregation – process of separating different types of waste at the point of generation


until their final disposal
Treatment and Disposal of Health Care Wastes
 Pyrolysis – is the thermal decomposition of health care wastes in the absence
of supplied molecular oxygen in the destruction chamber where the said waste is
converted into gaseous, liquid or solid form
 Autoclave – is the use of steam sterilization to render waste harmless and is an
efficient wet thermal disinfection process. This method of using pressure and heat
is widely used and usually setting is at 121⁰C with a pressure of 15 psi for 15
to 30 minutes
 Microwave – incorporated some type of size reduction device. Waste is
exposed to microwaves that raise the temperature to 100⁰C (237.6⁰F) for at
least 30 minutes
 Chemical disinfection - chemicals are added to health care waste to kill or
inactivate present pathogens. Examples are sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen
peroxide, peroxyacetic acid, and heated alkali. 5% Sodium hypochlorite is
recommended
 Biological process – uses an enzyme mixture to decontaminate health care
wastes
 Encapsulation – involves the filling of containers with waste, adding and
immobilizing material, and sealing the containers
 Inertization – suitable for pharmaceutical waste that involves the mixing of waste
with cement and other substances before disposal

Landfill – an engineered site designed to keep waste isolated from the environment

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