Medical wastes are liquids and solid wastes that arise during the treatment, diagnosis, of human beings or animals. They may also arise during research while testing biological material. They are classified into two different categories that include communal waste, and biomedical waste. When the wastes are poorly managed, they result to economic and environmental costs for residents of a certain geographical area. These wastes have adverse effects on the environment and require being disposed safely through a well defined medical waster management system. The defined waste management system entails the number in which the medical waste is collected, sorted, processed, recycled and reused. That process ensures that the medical are disposed safely into the environmental and thus guarantee a sustainable development that is characterized by minimal environmental degradation. Globalization effects all the aspects of human life, and the medical sector of the economy has not been left behind. Medical wastes are adverse product of globalization that posses threat to the environment due to the effect of the wastes on the ecosystem. The medical wastes include toxic products that when released, pollute the environment, hence they require to be managed safely through appropriate treatment and safe disposal. It is essential to evaluate the sources, impacts and solution to the environmental problems caused by the medical wastes.
It is important to know what are the causes of medical wastes, and why should be disposed safely into the environment. Medical wastes pose danger because they pose potential risk to the medical personnel and other population when not properly managed. The medical wastes include the expired medication that have not been used, used test strips, and other accessories. According to Coxon (2011), There are hazardous and non-hazardous medical wastes, and each requires to be manages in a unique way depending with the category of the waste. Medical wastes are either communal wastes or biomedical wastes. The communal wastes are the general health care wastes that encompass boxes, bottles and papers while biomedical wastes include the hazardous health care wastes that are further classified into heavy metal waste, radioactive waste, chemical wastes, pharmaceutical waste, genotoxic wastes, infectious wastes, and anatomical wastes (Pratyusha, et, al, 2012, pp. 121-122).
According to Arshad, et al, (2011), medical wastes when poorly managed medical wastes affect the environment negatively besides playing a key role in spread of disease causing microorganism. It is the responsibility of the hospitals to ensure that the medical wastes are disposed safely to ensure that the environment is clean and thus reduce the chances of infection near and within the hospitals. Thus, the hospitals in Pakistan have to adhere to guidelines set by ministry of health environmental health unit that guide health facilities on how to manage the medical wastes. Most hospitals in Pakistan are employing the guidelines to ensure that they do not pose any risk to the environment.
The medical wastes pose threat to human and the environmental health, therefore, a well defined management program should be established because these wastes cannot be disposed like conventional wastes because they may have some heavy metals and endocrine disruptors among others compounds Several regulatory bodies have been established to ensure that the pharmaceutical wastes are well managed, among these bodies include “Environmental protection Agency (EPA), State Pharmacy Boards, and Local Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) (Pratyusha, 2011, p.122). These bodies have classified the medical wastes in references to their wastes and each waste have a code, which determines the manner in which the medical waste should be managed.
It is imperative for the healthcare care facilities to adopt sustainable development by greening the health care and greening the health care supply chain. This begins by taking a small initiative that results to enormous changes in the health care. Among the hospitals that are adapting the greening health care movement in their purchases and constructions include Colorado’s Boulder Community Hospital and Wisconsin’s St. Mary’s Medical Center. “Boulder Community and St. Mary's have implemented environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) practices to help identify safe and environmentally smart products” (Hall, nd, p. 38). EPP is achieved through efficient energy use, minimum pollution, and use of less toxic products, healthier and safer environment for workers and patients, recycling of wastes, and packaging of products efficiently. Through employment of these procedures, the health care facilities are greening and hence reducing the chances of environmental degradation caused by medical wastes.
According to Hutchinson (2006), there is essence to adopt a technology that is fast, clean and compact to destroy the dangerous medical wastes. Medical facilities should use the Von Lersner’s mousetrap, Ecolotec, to destroy the medical wastes. Ecolotec is an important tool for medical waste management system because it reduces the quantity of greenhouses gas emissions from the hospitals’ incinerators. The Ecolotec waste management system is an efficient system because of its ability to use resources, water and power, efficiently and potential to cause minimal environmental impact, besides being affordable. This kind of medical waste management should be adopted by all the health facilities to ensure minimum environmental injuries on the health of the ecosystem.
Medical wastes originate from various procedures that carried out in a health care facility setting and are classified in different catergories. The cost of irresponsible management and disposal of medical cost is so high because of the adverse impact of the wastes on the environment. The threats posed by these wastes on the health human beings and environmental should be minimized by proper management of these wastes. Irresponsible management of medical wastes has attributed to widespread of HIV among the medical personnel and patients in Pakistan. Medical waste management system is a detailed plan that defines the manner in which the medical wastes should be managed and safely disposed.
Various organizations have been bestowed with the responsibilities of developing effective programs to manage these wastes. Such organizations include the Environmental protection Agency (EPA) among others. Governments across the globe and many organizations are developing policies to ensure that the medical wastes are managed effectively to guarantee sustainable development. Laws and regulation on medical waste disposals are also being enacted.
Proper waste management procedures should be put in place to guarantee sustainable development through greening of the medical waste management and adoption of technologically efficient and effective innovations like the Von Lersner’s mousetrap. Greening the health facilities is a 21st century concept that required the health facilities management to adapt various policies that will ensure a safer environment for all the members of the ecosystem. By greening the environment, the medical wastes along with all the procedures in the health facility setting will be managed in an environmentally friendly manner.
References
Arshad, N. Nayyar, S. Amin, F. & Mahmood, K. T. (2011_). Hospital Waste Disposal: A Review Article. J. Pharm. Sci. & Res. 3(8), 1412-1219
Coxon, M. (2011). The Whys and Wherefores of Wastes. NY: McMIllan PublishersLimited.
Hall, A. G. (nd). Greening the Healthcare: 21st Century and Beyond.
Hutchinson (2006). It's in the Timing. Mechanical Engineering. 43-43
Pratyusha, K., Gaikwad, N. M., Phatak, A.A. & Chaudhari, P.D. (2012). Reveiw On: Waster Material management in Pharmarceutical Industry. Int. J. Pharm. Sci. Rese, 16(2)121-129
