244
75% and 90% waste from health care (Table 6.3) is usually “non-hazardous”
whereas the rest 10–25% is “hazardous” and likely to pose health and environmental risks.
The impact on health due to health-care waste depends on the following:
• Cytotoxic or genotoxic chemical composition
• Infectious agents
• Radioactivity
• Sharps
• Toxic or hazardous chemicals
The major groups of people at danger due to health-care waste are as follows:
• Medical and paramedical personnel
• Patients
• Visitors to health-care establishments
• Personnel in health-care support services (housekeeping, caterers, personnel at
laundries, etc.)
• Workers transporting waste
• Workers in waste-management facilities
Many cytotoxic drugs have harmful local effects subsequent to direct contact
apart from causing dizziness, headache, nausea, or dermatitis. Injuries due to sharps
in the year 2000 were estimated to have resulted in nearly 16,000 hepatitis C, 66000
hepatitis B, and 200 to 5000 HIV infections for health-care workers (Prüss-Ustun
et al. 2005).
Since the quantity of waste generated worldwide is increasing speedier than the
creation of infrastructure required to deal with it, at least half of the world’s population is likely to be affected due to poor management of health-care waste (Harhay
et al. 2009).
A radiotherapy institute at Goiânia, Brazil, while moving to a new location left a
sealed radioactive substance in equipment at its old location. Two people who
gained entree to old premises broke open the casing sealed radioactive substance
after taking it to home to reveal the radioactive material. The incidence resulted in
external contamination in 249 people out of some 112,000 people monitored in
Goiânia several of whom suffered severe health problems or died (IAEA 1988).
Out of 191 American workers had been reported of acquiring HIV infection
while performing duty as of 30 June 1999, 136 workers were reported as exposed to
body fluids, blood, or laboratory specimens with HIV (Beltrami et al. 2000).
An outbreak of hepatitis in 2009 B in Gujarat, India, linked to lives of 60 people
was liked to repackaging and reselling of used needles/syringe (Harhay et al. 2009;
Solberg 2009).
Annual injury rates in health-care facility workers in the United States at 10–20
per 1000 workers with the highest rates reported by waste handlers and cleaning
personnel at 180 per 1000 workers (WHO 2014b).
6 Public Health
75% and 90% waste from health care (Table 6.3) is usually “non-hazardous”
whereas the rest 10–25% is “hazardous” and likely to pose health and environmental risks.
The impact on health due to health-care waste depends on the following:
• Cytotoxic or genotoxic chemical composition
• Infectious agents
• Radioactivity
• Sharps
• Toxic or hazardous chemicals
The major groups of people at danger due to health-care waste are as follows:
• Medical and paramedical personnel
• Patients
• Visitors to health-care establishments
• Personnel in health-care support services (housekeeping, caterers, personnel at
laundries, etc.)
• Workers transporting waste
• Workers in waste-management facilities
Many cytotoxic drugs have harmful local effects subsequent to direct contact
apart from causing dizziness, headache, nausea, or dermatitis. Injuries due to sharps
in the year 2000 were estimated to have resulted in nearly 16,000 hepatitis C, 66000
hepatitis B, and 200 to 5000 HIV infections for health-care workers (Prüss-Ustun
et al. 2005).
Since the quantity of waste generated worldwide is increasing speedier than the
creation of infrastructure required to deal with it, at least half of the world’s population is likely to be affected due to poor management of health-care waste (Harhay
et al. 2009).
A radiotherapy institute at Goiânia, Brazil, while moving to a new location left a
sealed radioactive substance in equipment at its old location. Two people who
gained entree to old premises broke open the casing sealed radioactive substance
after taking it to home to reveal the radioactive material. The incidence resulted in
external contamination in 249 people out of some 112,000 people monitored in
Goiânia several of whom suffered severe health problems or died (IAEA 1988).
Out of 191 American workers had been reported of acquiring HIV infection
while performing duty as of 30 June 1999, 136 workers were reported as exposed to
body fluids, blood, or laboratory specimens with HIV (Beltrami et al. 2000).
An outbreak of hepatitis in 2009 B in Gujarat, India, linked to lives of 60 people
was liked to repackaging and reselling of used needles/syringe (Harhay et al. 2009;
Solberg 2009).
Annual injury rates in health-care facility workers in the United States at 10–20
per 1000 workers with the highest rates reported by waste handlers and cleaning
personnel at 180 per 1000 workers (WHO 2014b).
6 Public Health