What are the Main Approaches of Medical Waste Management?
We all know very well how healthcare and medicine in general make our lives much easier. Without the efforts of doctors and other medical staff a common flu would be a problem to deal with. However, all these healthcare activities that happen in the background and make sure that patients get their medicine also generate large amounts of hazardous waste material.
Living this material just like that or not disposing of it in a proper manner would be quite dangerous without a proper medical waste management. Because of this, all hospitals in the United States, or anywhere else in the world, are required by the law to dispose and manage their waste material in a way that preserves both public health and the environment.
First of all, all forms of medical refuse that is the result of healthcare activities needs to be accordingly treated before it can be disposed of.
Medical leftovers includes bio hazardous medical waste, but also sharp material such as needles and syringes that are left after:
• Treatment
• Diagnosis
• Production or testing of biological material
• Immunization
Of course, although it is often easy to confuse with other waste in hospitals, such as paper towels and other solid elements, leftovers created in food processing that don’t contain blood or infectious agents or excretes generated by livestock on farms, medical waste management is an entirely different thing and needs to be treated as such.
What Medical Waste Management Methods are Most Often Used?
When it comes to managing and disposing of medical waste material, there are four accepted method. These are:
• Microwave technology
• Incineration
• Sterilization by steam
• Generators
In general, the idea is to treat bio medical waste material in a way that will eliminate, or at least decrease its hazards and make it safe for ensuing handling and disposal.
The most common approach to this is by incinerating or cremating bio medical waste. This destroys pathogens and renders source materials unrecognizable in the ash.
Incineration, however, only works with solid materials. For liquids, a 1% to 10% bleach solution is used to disinfect it. Other chemical disinfectants, such as sodium-hydroxide solution, can also be used for medical waste disposal.
One method of treating bio-hazardous medical waste involves using steam and pressure via autoclaves to sterilize the waste and decrease it to a level it can be safely got rid of. This method is today routinely used by healthcare facilities such as hospitals and clinical laboratories for waste disposal.
Finally, other treatment methods include the use of microwaves and alkaline digesters.
It should also be mentioned that a shredder may be used before the medical waste is disposed via a microwave system or an autoclave in order to prepare the refuse material for them.
As medical waste material can often be hazardous to the public health and environment, these need to be managed and disposed of in a proper way. Without companies that deal with bio hazardous medical waste material, or regulations governing its management, we would very likely have to “enjoy” the consequences.