Case Study: Biohazardous Hazardous Waste Disposal Texas

Allied Medical Waste Tracking Inc. was started to solve the problem of the dangers of improper disposal of medical waste. The intention of the company was clear and the results were supported by the Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988. This act demanded that all health institutions find a way to dispose of their medical waste. The consequences for failing to comply were fines imposed by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Medical facilities were required to have a way of managing infectious waste. Some standards were put in place to make sure that the facilities did not compromise the well being of the environment. There are impacts on human health and the

Infectious waste is stored in yellow clinical bags, sharps are stored in a sharps container and household waste is stored in black bags. Each of these containers can only be filled up until they are 75% full at which point they must be closed and stored in a separate room prior to collection.

Through the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Congress directed EPA to regulate all aspects of hazardous waste. As a result, EPA developed strict regulations for the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. States may implement stricter requirements than the Federal regulations as needed. Treatment and Disposal: Any process that changes the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a waste to minimize its threat to the environment. Storage: The temporary holding of waste before the waste is treated,

Health care facilities usually heavy-duty chemical on the premises that are required for sanitation, sterilization, testing and certain types of chemical treatment. However, chemical can be unsafe and unhealthy if not used property, or if they have reactive properties when exposed to other chemicals.

The first is that the Cleanco have no ethical issue, under the financial pressure, they cut the costing and dumped some of medical waste in a local municipal landfill, they are professional about this business, and they have ability to detect and classify the right stuff in right landfill. Chantale’s

Which is used to sterilize containers, medical instruments, trays, etc., making hospitals place amongst the top 10 water users nationwide (American Hospitals Association). For example a report by the CBECS that was conducted for the very first time in 30 yrs., stated that hospitals in the U.S consumed about 133billion gallons of water in 2007 alone (U.S Energy Information Administration, 2012). While on the other hand, they also produce huge amounts of waste per year, which equates to 2.3 million tons (University of Pennsylvania, 2015). Which includes paper, cardboard, infectious material, and medical waste much of which is not properly disposed of and makes its way into the environment (Savage, N/A).

As nurses we sometimes get caught up in “our walls” and we don’t give much thought to how what we’re doing inside affects everyone else on the outside. After observing nurses on the floor throw away plastic medicine tops or old IV tubing you begin to wonder whether they think about where it goes and what impact it has once its gone? That IV bag and tubing contains DEHP a chemical which is commonly used in Polyvinyl chloride (the material which makes the IV bag and tubing flexible), when that chemical is exposed to fetuses, preterm babies and male infants damage to their reproductive systems occurs (Mejia & Sattler, 2009). The incineration of that IV bag or decomposition of it in a landfill leads to release of dioxins and furans (carcinogens) back into the environment where they affect people’s airways, metabolic and endocrine pathways increasing their chance of developing cancer later on in life. By exploring the path of one piece of waste, imagine the impact that an entire days worth of waste has on the environment.

Hospitals or health care service providers deal with hazardous wastes in the workplace. Sometimes it can be a daunting task to correctly treat, dispose, or transport these wastes within the hospital’s monetary means and provide a safe and healthy workplace. With most hospitals dealing with budget cuts, hazardous waste reduction is top priority. Hazardous waste reduction in the medical or hospital field is a possible task. This is possible by perseverance through reduction of what hazardous materials come in, development and implementation of a reduction plan and finding innovative ways to handle, treat, or dispose of the waste.

{Every day, a large amount of possibly infectious and hazardous materials are generated in health care centres.|A significant amount of infectious and hazardous waste is produced by health centres on a daily basis.|There is a large volume of possibly contagious and unsafe materials generated by health centres every single day.} {Medical waste includes treated and untreated materials, for example, animal waste, microbiological waste, pathological waste, animal and human blood and fluids, medicines, medical tools, etc.|Medical waste is comprised of treated and untreated elements like animal waste, microbiological waste, pathological waste, animal and human blood and fluids, medicines, medical tools, etc.|Medical waste consists of treated and untreated materials, for instance, animal waste, microbiological waste, pathological waste, animal and human blood and fluids, medicines, medical tools, etc.} {These items need to be specially taken care of to keep the environment, animals, and people safe.|These waste needs to be handled with extra care to prevent jeopardizing the environment, people, and animals.|These materials ought to be carefully controlled to avoid putting the environment, people, and animals at risk.}

“Reports of medical debris keep thousands from shore,” Washington Post, July 10,1988. The poor management of health care waste resulted in the wash-up incidents on the Atlantic coast in 1987 and 1988. Following the incidents, the congress had passed Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988. After a few years, many states responded to the wash-up crisis by formulating their own medical waste regulations. Consequently, New Jersey’s Regulated Medical Waste Management act was passed. This paper succinctly discusses those regulations. Considering the wash-up incidents happened on the Atlantic coast, the New Jersey’s regulations are stringent enough to prevent such events from happening again. However, the regulations regarding the household medical

One hospital was faced with unexpected issues regarding waste disposal and sample transportation. “The company that hauled medical trash to the

Congress passed The Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965. The Agency of Environmental Safety considered this Act as the primary effort made by federal authority for efficient waste clearance technology. This act controls the dumping material; manage storage and management of solid, both and non-precarious and precarious wastage. It highlights the processes that are environmentally liable to dispose waste at the commercial, municipal, industrial and household levels (Tchobanoglous & Vergara, 2010). This was considered as primary initiative of a chain of systems focusing on resource management and air cleaning (Gerlak, 2005). There have been several major adjustments made to the Act with the reference to Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (1976). The involvement of federal

The Generation of hazardous waste by the human activities increase the risk of the damage to the environment and the human health. These create a very negative impact if not disposed properly. In the state of Illinois the implementation of the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is referred to as hazardous waste. This act consists of the changes to the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1956 and signed into the law of 1976. The regulations related to the implementation of

In general, chemical industry is still not keen to alter chemical products and processes and prefers to deal with waste end-of-pipe. Recycling and waste prevention together is a very effective policy to solve the environmental problem in the chemical sector. Prevention of waste is meant by use of minimum waste at the source and also reduction in the use of raw materials and energy. Waste dumping standards accepted by industry is most important. Industry seems to assume that waste minimization means only the reduction of the amount of waste sent to landfill, thus any kind of activity, especially off-site utilization and incineration, is seen as waste minimization. An Environmental administrator, who would like to implement standards of waste

Waste disposal is a huge concern for our planet earth. Seven billion people live on earth and every single one of us creates waste. A lot of people think that their responsibility is over once the garbage is in the garbage bin and the garbage workers take it away, but that is not true. There is so much more to the process of waste disposal.