Medical Waste Management in Private Hospitals in Tehran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Ecohydrology Research Group, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

4 School of Environment, Azad University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.34172/jaehr.1274

Abstract

Background: Solid waste management is one of the important aspects of the hospital management.
Methods: In this study, we examined the quantity and composition of medical solid waste in eight private hospitals in Tehran. For this purpose, a checklist was used through interviews with hospital waste management staff as well as collecting information on hospital waste generation. The annual average of obtained data was analyzed in this study.
Results: The results indicated that the private hospitals under study generated solid waste ranging from 24 to 1091 kg/day. The average medical waste generation in the studied privative hospitals was 4 kg/bed/day equal to 5.09 kg/patient/day. Common waste accounted for 70.73% of total hospital solid waste, while infectious and sharp waste accounted for 31.04% of the hospital solid waste. Infectious wastes were disinfected using autoclave in all hospitals.
Conclusion: Segregation of infectious waste from hospital waste mass reduces the environmental and health risk of hospital waste and reduces the cost of waste management in private hospitals. 

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume 11, Issue 3
July 2023
Pages 142-146

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