Concept of Hospital Waste Management

According to Hornby (2001), wastes are materials that are no longer needed and are thrown away. Olojoba (2009) also define waste as a substance produced in man’s day to day activities through the process of consumption, recreation, production and treatment which are unwanted and are no longer useful to man. Wastes include gaseous, liquid and solid materials which are useless and discarded by man.

According to Park (2005), hospital waste can be defines as any waste which is generated during diagnosis, treatment, surgical operation etc. of human beings or in research activities pertaining therein the production or testing of biological materials.

The waste produced in the course of health care activities carries the highest potential for infections and injuries than any other type of waste. Therefore it is essential to have safe and reliable methods for its handling. Inadequate and inappropriate handling of hospital waste may have serious public health consequences and a significant impact or the environment and the individual living in it.

Due to different kinds of therapeutic procedures such as surgery, delivery of babies, treatment of patient, abortion, injections carried out in the hospital, infectious waste are produced as by-products of these activities.

These materials must be handled and disposed off with care so that they do not create health hazards or nuisance to the public and the environment. Hospital waste are those waste which are generated from hospitals, clinics and medical laboratories examples are syringes, needles, scissors, plasters, death babies, blood from abortion, bandages, swabs, disused slide, etc. Hospital waste carry germs of diseases such as bacteria, micro-organism and HIV virus, so exposure to this hazardous waste can result to disease infection or injury. Due to the proper management of this waste, many hospital workers such as hospital oddly, nurses and patients have been exposed to risk of diseases such as hepatitis A and C, tuberculosis. The hospital waste from the hospital is being disposed off together with domestic waste within the hospital premises and in the river which ought not to be so. People go to the hospital for treatment of various ailments or injuries; it will therefore be very unethical if people acquire infection from the hospital due to poor management of hospital waste.

Aketer and Hussain (2000) reported that satisfactory hospital waste management in government and private hospitals are severely lacking. He said that no regulations are enforced in this area. The hospital environment is expected to be free from any hazardous substance such as pathogenic and infectious materials.

Unfortunately, the management of hospital waste has been neglected in our society and in the hospitals. Thus has been a major concern due to its potential high risk to human health and the environment.

References

Aketer &Hussain (2004). Hospital Waste Management and its Probable Health Effect. A Lesson from Bangladesh.

Hornby A. S. (2001). Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Olojoba A.O. (2009). Millenium Technology in Waste Management and Environmental Pollution Mitigation (1^st Ed.) Ughelli: Ama Ohoror Press.

Park K. (2005). Prevention and Social Medicine (18^th Ed.), India: Banarsidas Bhanot Publishers.