Health Care Without Harm - Medical Waste

Medical Waste

The Issue

Waste Minimization

Alternatives to Incineration

The GEF Project

Immunization Waste

Mercury

PVC & DEHP

Healthy Building

Food

Electronics

Pesticides and Fragrances

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The Issue

Large urban hospitals can generate more than two million tons of waste each year. Yet many hospitals in developing countries dump all waste streams together, from reception-area trash to operating-room waste, and burn them in incinerators. Over the years the world has learned that incineration is a leading source of highly toxic dioxin, mercury, lead and other dangerous air pollutants that threaten human health and the environment.

What’s more, some urban and many rural hospitals and clinics in the developing world simply discard their medical waste with regular trash and risk the spread of diseases among scavenger populations. Discarded needles and syringes may result in the spread of bloodborne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis. Others burn their waste in open fields or in small incinerators without pollution control, exposing communities downwind to toxic byproducts such as dioxins and mercury, and generating potentially hazardous ash. As health programs expand, the problem of medical waste treatment and disposal in rural areas becomes critical.

HCWH (Health Care Without Harm) works to minimize the amount and toxicity of all waste generated by the health care sector, to ensure the proper management and segregation of medical waste, and to eliminate the dangerous practice of incineration by promoting and implementing alternatives. In order to fulfill the medical ethic to "first do no harm," institutions charged with safeguarding public health, together with the health care industry have a responsibility to manage waste in ways that protect the public and the environment.

In the Global South—Asia, Africa and Latin America-- HCWH is addressing the problem of medical waste from various angles, including:

* Waste minimization, segregation . We are working with hospitals in a number of countries to promote the reduction of hazards entering the waste stream along with the environmentally sound management of the remaining medical waste.

*Alternative technologies. HCWH's review of medical waste treatment technologies has found that cost-effective alternatives that are safer and cleaner than incineration are both available and effective at rendering medical waste harmless. We are also working to promote the design and production of small-scale technologies for rural areas.

Alternative technologiy suppliers. We have compiled a list of 113 suppliers of equipment for non-incineration medical waste treatment. Together they supply technology in more than 60 countries. We will continue to update the list as even more suppliers and technologies become available.

*The GEF Project. We are collaborating with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Programme on a Global Environment Facility funded project to reduce environmental releases of dioxins and mercury by demonstrating and promoting best techniques and practices for reducing and managing health care waste in urban and rural settings in seven countries.

*Immunization Waste. Today it is still standard practice for international agencies carrying out immunization campaigns to instruct their field operations managers to burn the sharps and PVC syringes onsite. Ironically, while these all important immunization initiatives may be safeguarding public health in the short-term, in the long run they are creating potential public health problems through the inadequate disposal of their waste. In 2004 HCWH, in collaboration with the Philippine Department of Health, HCWH demonstrated that immunization waste can be disposed of safely, cheaply and in an environmentally sound fashion without the use of incinerators.