Bio Medical Waste ManagementAuthorization
Biomedical waste is the kind of waste which contains infectious (or potentially infectious) materials of all sorts. Biomedical waste is generated from several areas of varied fields from biological and also, medical sources and activities, such as the diagnosis of several diseases, prevention of them, or treatment of those particular diseases. It may or may not also include wastes associated with the varied generation of biomedical waste, that visually appears to be of the medical or may be of laboratory origin (e.g., packaging of certain medicines, unused or used bandages, infusion kits of several sorts, etc.), as well as the research laboratory waste which contains bio molecules or several organisms that are mainly prohibited or restricted from environmental release and cannot be seen with naked eyes.
Common generators or the producers of several biomedical waste include hospitals in all areas, nursing homes, health clinics, , medical research laboratories, dentists, and veterinarians, home health care, offices of physicians, and the morgues or funeral homes. In the healthcare facilities (i.e. the hospitals, the clinics, the doctor's offices, the veterinary hospitals and finally the clinical laboratories), waste with or from these characteristics may or may not alternatively be called the medical or clinical waste. Biomedical waste is mostly distinct from the normal trash or the general waste, and differs majorly from other types of various hazardous waste, such as the chemical, the radioactive, the universal or the industrial waste.
The Medical facilities generate a lot of wastes of hazardous chemicals and of various radioactive materials. While such wastes are normally or probably not infectious, they somewhat require proper disposal. Some wastes of some sort are considered of the multi hazardous type, such as the tissue samples which are preserved in formalin.
The disposal of these types of waste, is a serious environmental concern, as many and several types of medical wastes are being classified as infectious or bio hazardous, which would potentially lead to the dangerous spread of several infectious disease. The most and common danger for several humans is the infections which will and also affect other living organisms in the particular region. The daily exposures to the waste majorly landfills, leads to the accumulation of many harmful microbes or substances in the particular person's body.
Biomedical waste of those settings may pose to an injury and exposure the risks via occupational contact with the medical waste for the doctors, the nurses, and the janitorial, the laundry and the refuse workers. Further, there are several opportunities for the public to come into the contact with medical waste, such as needles which are used illicitly outside the healthcare settings, or the biomedical wastes being generated via the home health care.
Biomedical wastes must and always be properly managed and be disposed off to protect the environment, the general public and workers, especially the healthcare and the sanitation workers who are at the risk of exposure to Biomedical waste which can act as an occupational hazard. Steps into the management of the biomedical waste include the generation, the accumulation, the handling, the storage, the treatment, the transport and the disposal.[3]
The development and the implementation of a specific national waste management policy may or can improve the biomedical waste management in the health facilities in a country.
The waste which is normally generated, during the diagnosis, we see the treatment or the immunization of the human beings or the animals or in the research activities pertaining thereto or are in the production or testing of biological.
The medical care is evidently vital for our life and for specifically the health, but the waste which is generated from medical activities represents a real problem of the living nature and the human world. Improper management of the waste generated in the health care facilities, causes a direct health impact on community. Indiscriminate disposal of the BMW or hospital waste and the exposure to such waste possess a serious threat to the environment and to the human health that requires a specific treatment with the management prior to its final disposal.
We know it's a time-consuming process to segregate waste and to find the adequate storage spaces before any of the medical waste disposal company can "collect trash". Nevertheless, the enhanced education and the improved reporting procedures not only increase the efficiency, but ensure the compliance to the federal and state guidelines.
Among the most important issues when it comes to the hospital waste management is the proper training in the waste segregation; which is equally important is the management of the hazardous waste on-site. The wastes are:
- Biohazard waste
- Chemotherapy waste
- Sharps waste
- Empty ampoules
- Suture needles
- Butterflies
- Razor blades
- Scalpels
- Culture slides and dishes
The improper waste segregation normally costs hospitals tens of thousands of dollars a year - as some throw away a bulk of the waste in their bio hazardous waste streams - even if it's not a biohazard waste. Hospitals must and always be able to follow the trail or the waste stream of the different types of healthcare waste.
It's essential for the hospitals to have policies and the procedures in the place that regulate the handling and the implementation of the healthcare waste and the volume and the type of waste generated. Just because something is called "disposable" it doesn't mean that it won't have to handle it properly in regard to the segregation.
That is where the waste audit will come in. Waste audits are and will be an integral part of the healthcare waste management which aids the hospitals, in determining several differences between the clinical waste and the non-clinical waste, and the proper methods of segregation of waste streams will be there.
Every hospital should and must have a plan in the place to deal and manage with their medical wastes. For example, the hospitals around the country have implemented one of the best-practices to approaches and deal with the medical waste. Some of the several topics covered include:
- Biomedical waste management
- Self-auditing in different medical waste streams
- Solid waste management