behnam sepehrnia; azadeh navidmehr; fazllolah changani
Abstract
Background & Objective: One of the sources of municipal wastes is hospitals and health centers. At present in Iran, details regarding the quantity and quality of wastes generated in health centers are not available and specialists are facing many unknowns in planning, systematic and accurate management ...
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Background & Objective: One of the sources of municipal wastes is hospitals and health centers. At present in Iran, details regarding the quantity and quality of wastes generated in health centers are not available and specialists are facing many unknowns in planning, systematic and accurate management of wastes generated in these centers. Material & Methods: This cross sectional-exploratory and applied study was accomplished in 25 health centers in south of Tehran during 2012-15. In this study, weights and volumes of regular and infectious wastes have been determined in health centers with evaluation of the 250 checklist set during different seasons by environmental health experts. Results: Waste capitation per each person has been determined 41 gr, of which 22.5 gr and 18.6 gr belong to the regular and infectious wastes, respectively. The volume of produced regular and infectious wastes was also 0.07 and 0.056 (L/person/day), correspondingly. The density of the infectious and regular wastes was 329 and 320 (Kg/m3), in that order. Conclusion: The amount of waste generated in health-care centers is much lower than that is able to be a serious challenge for the waste management of these centers regarding the type of their activity, being usually administrative and educational. Appropriate waste separation and not mixing of infectious and regular wastes need to be provided training and greater supervision. The best performance of waste management system in these centers was the safe and accurate disposal of sharp wastes in Safety boxes.