31-01-2009, 12:28 AM
In India until recently not much attention was given to the disposal of hospital waste, which contains hazardous waste, which contains hazardous waste materials from various sources (eg: used syringes and needles, pus and blood soaked cotton etc.). Usually the waste is disposed in the community bin along with domestic waste creating environmental pollution. Incineration and land filling are the most widely used technique for disposal hospital waste. Though these methods have several inherent advantages, indiscriminate and improper application of these methods may lead to considerable harm to the society. All these factors receives our immediate attention to the safe management of hospital waste. Irrespective of the type of hospital or its size, it is essential to have a proper waste management system which should be effective enough management system which should be effective enough to rectify the problems in the handling and disposal of wasters. This could be done by properly studying the hospital, its waste generation characteristics etc. A properly designed system should have along with appropriate methods of collection, transportation and disposal of wastes, awareness creation programmes for its staff and an organizational structure of the waste management committees and/or teams. The system designed for the two hospitals, namely the Sree Avittom Tirunal Hospital and Medical College Hospital has been done through proper study and so has almost all the components of a good waste management system. The key to the proper management of hospital waste lies not in most modern technologies, but in the application of appropriate and systematic waste management practices.