Regulated Medical Waste And Its Management Techniques
To be true, waste has always been a cause of concern for the environmentalists. However, what has recently grabbed their attention more is the Regulated Medical Waste (RMW). Let us find out more about this so called form of waste that is really becoming a cause of present and future concern. As you read along, we will also discuss some of the techniques which are prevalent nowadays and help in mitigating the concern.
What is Regulated Medical Waste?
Regulated Medical Waste or biohazardous waste or infectious medical waste; all these are similar terms which refer to a kind of contaminated waste containing infectious materials. It may consist of some discarded human tissues, organs, solid wastes, sharps, blood and other body fluids etc. Needless to mention, these wastes pose an utter risk of spreading infections.
Regulated Medical Wastes too could be subdivided into various heads, but this may be dependent on the region from which it gets generated. Broadly, it could be grouped under the following heads:
· Pathological Wastes, including body parts, tissues and organs etc.
· Liquid Wastes, including human blood and other body fluids
· Sharps, including scalpel blades, needles, syringes and broken glass
· Solid Wastes, including contaminated cloths, linens, cotton balls etc.
Talking particularly of the U.S. region, mitigating Regulated Medical Waste could be a trouble for almost everyone, the hospitals, healthcare centers, individual practitioners and to some extent, some particular regions such as North Carolina.
Methods of Treating Regulated Medical Waste:
As per the findings of Environmental Protection Agency, infectious waste has better chances of spreading diseases at the point where it is generated. However, the risk gets feebly attenuated while it is transported to a distance for treatment.
And as per this, EPA inspected the technologies to find out suitable techniques for treating the wastes and lessening the infectious traits of the materials. Two of the principal methods used for waste treatment are as follows:
Autoclaving:
Autoclaving is the treatment method that employs heat and makes use of saturated steam and pressure to demolish the microorganisms. This method is found to be extremely safe and efficient, but could lead to varying results on wastes generated out of pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy and chemicals etc.
For sharps waste disposal, organizations have accepted this method, but it sometimes fails to satisfy many others. This is due to the fact that there is no reasonable method to differentiate between treated and untreated wastes.
Incineration:
Incineration is again a globally-acclaimed method to treat all kinds of biohazardous and infectious medical wastes. As per an estimate, about 90 percent of medical waste receives incineration treatment before it accepts further treatment.
But again, incineration too could have a disadvantage- Biohazard pick up companies have notified of incineration producing emission, which forces the regulating bodies to think of some other ways quickly.
The concern of regulated medical waste has led to development of innumerable strategies of mitigating with it. However, the major requirement in these is to rule out their drawbacks, so that they could lead to unblemished results with their advantages.
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