Development Of A Tool For The Assessment Of Department Specific Hospital Waste

摘要

As a result of rapid growth in population and advancement of medical technologies that have increased the human life span, the quantities of hospital waste generated have also been increasing. It is estimated that hospitals in the United States generate nearly 7000 tons of waste each day, or 2 M tons annually [1]. Hospital waste in general can be classified as medical waste, infectious waste, and domestic waste. Medical waste can be termed as the wastes that are accumulated as a result of patient diagnosis and treatment or immunization of human beings. Infectious wastes are the wastes that are in contact with a patient having an infectious disease and are capable of producing infectious diseases. Note that the medical wastes are classified as infectious waste if they are not properly segregated from infectious wastes. The waste generated in a hospital that have a similar character to domestic waste is termed as domestic waste.rnMajority of the wastes emanating from hospitals are solid waste [1]. The solid waste include paper, plastic, food, metal, glass, and other materials that contribute to nearly 85% of the total hospital wastes, whereas only 10-15% of the hospital waste is found to be infectious as can be observed from Figure 1, that presents the results of a case study of the Ottawa General Hospital audit. Similar observations were made by the H2E [1] and the USEPA [2].