Healthcare Waste Management: The New Focus

摘要

Solid waste from healthcare facilities and related activities first drew public attention in the late 1980's. Since then, its management has been as ever-changing as a kaleidoscope. As we enter the 21st century, this relatively small segment of the solid waste stream continues to be a challenge that keeps regulators, healthcare providers, health facility managers, clinicians, and the solid waste industry on their toes. The use of on-site medical waste incinerators has been declining since passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This fostered a market for alternative treatment systems that fiourished from the perspective of systems developed, but wilted in terms of systems installed. The overwhelming trend was toward off-site treatment and disposal of regulated medical waste. The off-site treatment and disposal industry has gone from one of thousands of local and regional service providers to a near monopoly. On the upstream side, the focus by generators has shifted from simple regulatory compliance and cost control to one of truly aggressive pollution prevention. Motivated in large part by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA), great strides have been made toward the virtual elimination of mercury in healthcare facilities, followed by improved stewardship of overall waste reduction initiatives beyond simple recycling. The events of September 11th 2001 sent Shockwaves throughout the country the likes of which were never anticipated. Aside from obvious issues related to the potential of future catastrophic attacks on American soil and the burden they would place on the nation's healthcare facilities, questions are being asked about the medical waste industry's ability to effectively collect and destroy wastes that would result from a wide-scale bio-terrorism event.