Bio-Medical Waste Removal Coral Springs – Explaining Incineration
There are a number of ways for a healthcare facility to dispose of their medical waste. The most popular of them, however, has always been and will, it appears still be, is incineration. In this short article, I’d like to explain this medical waste management Coral Springs methods, how it is used, why you should consider using it if you are running a hospital and it’s advantages and disadvantages.
According to EPA, about 80% or more of medical waste is being incinerated. This is a pretty simple and effective bio-medical waste removal method. All you need is to put any type of solid waste into the incinerator (you need to use some other method for liquid and semi-liquid medical waste, such as chemical decontamination, for instance) and the machine will turn this waste into ash.
Advantages of Using an Incinerator in Bio-Medical Waste Removal
You can probably immediately see several benefits of using an incinerator in medical waste management Coral Springs.
First of, the extremely high temperature coming from the furnace doesn’t just destroy solid materials you put in it, but most of the pathogens will be exterminated this way as well. The incinerator, thus, greatly reduces the risk of infection from all sorts of bacteria and viruses, although some rarer ones can survive the hot temperature.
Another obvious advantage of using incinerators in bio-medical waste removal is the fact that once medical waste is turned into ash successfully, the waste volume is reduced by about 70% or more. This greatly reduces the space it takes in the landfills and subsequently the need for additional landfills as well.
Disadvantages of Using and Incinerator in Bio-Medical Waste Removal
Albeit incinerating medical waste has long been the number one method in medical waste management Coral Springs, it is definitely not without its disadvantages. Some of which, we were not aware of before, some we chose to ignore, as there was no viable alternative for a long time.
The biggest caveat of using an incinerator comes from the fact that it releases toxic gases into the atmosphere and pollutes it. Some of the gases include heavy metals like mercury and other toxic compounds. Even though modern incinerators are today required to have filters to minimize toxic emissions, this problem is far from being solved completely.
Another problem with destroying medical waste in this way is that it then can’t be used again The running trend today is recycle or even reuse certain medical waste whenever it is possible. For example, hospitals in Coral Springs, Florida, rarely destroy sharps waste such as needles and scalpels, but instead choose to sterilize it and then either reuse it for the same purpose, or recycle it for another, be it in medical care industry or some else. Obviously, if waste has been turned into ash, than this can’t happen. This is one of the main reasons why health care institutions are turning to using other methods, such as steam sterilization (autoclaving).
There are clearly much more advantages and disadvantages of using incinerators in bio-medical waste removal. If you are thinking about adding this method as a part of your medical waste management Coral Springs program, you should carefully weigh them all.
