Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
11033323 | Waste Management | 2018 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
The aim of this work was to record the quantities and composition of medical waste (MW) generated by public and private medical histopathology laboratories (HISTOLB) and to provide pertinent waste generation design coefficients (e.g. g/examinee) for those laboratories. This can be a useful coefficient when designing medical waste treatment facilities. The study was conducted on three public and four private HISTOLBs in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece) for a period of 5â¯months. One sampling week was selected randomly per month. During the study period, the examinees per week were 108 and 90 in the public and private HISTOLBs, respectively. According to the results, 57% of the total MW generated in both the public and private laboratories were toxic waste (TXW), namely the liquid formaldehyde that is used to preserve the tissue. The mixed hazardous waste (MHW) comprised 28% and 24%, respectively, of the total MW, in the public and private facilities, respectively. The infectious waste constituted around 15% of the total MW generated in both types of facilities. Urban type waste was always less than 4% by weight. The total mean MW generated in the public and private laboratories were 208â¯Â±â¯543 (nâ¯=â¯1614) and 195â¯Â±â¯512 (nâ¯=â¯1789) g/examinee, respectively. A large variance among the mean MW generation rates of the participating individual laboratories that belonged to the same category was observed. The dominant fraction of the infectious waste was the plastic containers that contained the tissue samples, being around 75% of the total infectious waste, followed by the latex gloves (being around 17% of the infectious waste).
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
Authors
Katerina Kalogiannidou, Eftychia Nikolakopoulou, Dimitrios Komilis,