Pathological waste that is contaminated with radioactive material is usually treated as radioactive waste rather than infectious waste. Most hospitals generate radioactive waste as do some doctors' offices and veterinary offices if they offer brachytherapy. Waste professionals refer to this as municipal solid waste , and it is usually disposed of in landfills. One reason medical waste management is so challenging is that a given batch of waste can be multihazardous - posting rhreats in more than one way.
An alternative classification scheme comes from The World Health Organization. Pathological waste is included in the above categories, but is designated separately because of the potential psychological impact on observers.
It consists of recognizable tissues, organs, and body parts derived from animals and humans. If you can tell the waste came from a living organism, it is pathological waste:.
Material removed from the body in surgery and fluids and solids removed in autopsies is pathological waste, with the exception of teeth. More on pathological waste. In the United Kingdom the term clinical waste is used. In the US the term regulated waste is used in healthcare contexts mostly to refer to worker safety standards and procedures. OSHA promulgated rules for dealing for dealing for dealing with bodily fluids called the Bloodborne Pathogens standard.
It refers to regulated waste as blood or "other potentially infectious materials" OPIM and items contaminated with these materials as well as pathological and microbiological wastes containing blood or OPIM. The have a sample Exposure Control Plan. The plan should specify which employees have routine contact with blood and blood products and what to do after an exposure. OSHA also requires that regulated waste be put in closable containers and that if there is any chance of leaks from those containers, that a second container be employed.
Infectious waste is that which is suspected of containing pathogens bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi in a sufficiently large quantity or concentration to result in disease in susceptible hosts. This category includes:. Such waste includes blood, body fluids, tissues, organs, body parts, human fetuses, and animal carcasses. A subcategory of pathological waste is anatomical waste, which consists of identifiable human or animal body parts, healthy or otherwise.
Sharps are objects sharp enough to cut or puncture the skin, e. They can transmit infections directly into the bloodstream. Sharps are generally treated as highly hazardous medical waste regardless of whether they are contaminated or not. Regarding sharp waste, special consideration must be paid to: infusion, transfusion, and perfusion sets; butterfly needles; cannulas; disposable scalpel blades and razors; hemodialysis sets; laboratory slides; broken glass containers bacteriological and clinical laboratories ; ampoules containing solution residues, etc.
Two basic methods are used to tackle the risk of infection which sharps pose — reducing their infectiousness, or their sharpness. The first solution generally entails specifying methods of treatment for sharps, which are frequently as stringent as those applied to pathological waste.
The second solution may entail the isolation of the sharps typically in special containers , and their mechanical processing, or their encapsulation. Many states have thoroughgoing regulations regarding sharps containers, including measures to ensure their puncture-resistance and clear labelling. Certain states require sharps to be mechanically blunted or shredded, while others require them to be rendered unidentifiable.
Certain treatment solutions that diminish the risks of infection from medical waste and preclude scavenging may concurrently cause other health and environmental hazards.
The incineration of certain kinds of medical waste, particularly those which contain heavy metals or chlorine, may release toxic substances into the atmosphere due to, for example, insufficiently high incineration temperatures or the inadequate control of emissions. Because of the aforementioned hazards, when a treatment or disposal solution for medical waste is selected especially when there is a risk of toxic emissions or other dangerous consequences , the relative risks and the integration of the method into the overall framework of a comprehensive waste strategy should be carefully evaluated taking local conditions into consideration.
Incineration was formerly the most popular method of disposing of the majority of hazardous medical waste. Although it remains a widely-used solution, alternative methods are growing in popularity.
When selecting a treatment solution, various factors must be taken into consideration and many of these depend on local conditions, such as health and safety requirements, and the available options for the final disposal of the waste, etc. The effectiveness of incineration is beyond doubt, yet the method entails serious issues concerning air quality.
Due to the fact that the reagent is atmospheric oxygen, a large volume of air must continuously pass through the system. Chemical disinfection has an extensive role in healthcare, being used to eliminate microorganisms on medical equipment, and on walls and floors. Nowadays chemical disinfection is also used to treat medical waste.
The addition of chemicals to the waste destroys or deactivates the pathogens in it, although the result is more frequently disinfection rather than sterilization. This solution is most appropriate for the treatment of liquid waste including blood, liquid excreta, or hospital sewage.
In spite of this fact, solid and even highly hazardous medical waste materials, such as microbiological cultures, sharps, etc. The aforementioned process has the following drawbacks:. Unless alternative disposal solutions are unavailable, human body parts and animal carcasses should not be chemically disinfected.
If there is no other choice, however, such materials may be chemically disinfected after having been shredded. When chemical disinfection is being planned, the ultimate disposal of the processed waste should be given close attention as inappropriate disposal might have serious consequences for the environment. Chemical disinfection is typically performed on site, i.
There is, however, a growing tendency for the development of commercial, self-contained, and fully automatic systems for medical waste treatment located in industrial zones. The processed waste can be disposed of as non-risk medical waste, but if the chemical disinfectants used leak or are improperly disposed of, they may have a detrimental impact on the environment.
In wet thermal treatment, the waste is first shredded and then exposed to high-pressure, high-temperature steam. It has similarities to the process of autoclave sterilization. In order to increase the efficiency of disinfection, sharps should be crushed or milled.
This solution is unsuitable for the treatment of anatomical waste and animal carcasses and is inefficient when processing chemical or pharmaceutical waste. At a frequency of about MHz and a wavelength of The microwaves rapidly heat the water the treated waste contains and heat conduction destroys the infectious elements.
The waste materials are first shredded and subsequently humidified and transferred to an irradiation chamber equipped with a series of microwave generators; irradiation takes around 20 minutes.
Following the irradiation process, the waste is compacted in a container and then released into the municipal waste stream. Microwave irradiation is commonly used in numerous countries and its popularity is growing. Despite this fact, it entails relatively high costs and because there is also a risk of operation and maintenance issues, its use is not yet recommended in developing countries.
Similar solutions operating with different wavelengths or with electron beams are under development. Land disposal is considered to be an acceptable solution when there is no means of treating waste prior to its disposal.
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