Health-care waste management in India

Health-care waste management in India is receiving greater attention due to recent regulations (the Biomedical Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules, 1 998). The prevailing situation is analysed covering various issues like qua ntities and proportion of different constituents of wastes, handling, treat ment and disposal methods in various health-care units (HCUs). The waste ge neration rate ranges between 0.5 and 2.0 kg bed(-1) day(-1). It is estimate d that annually about 0.33 million tonnes of waste are generated in India. The solid waste from the hospitals consists of bandages, linen and other in fectious waste (30-35%), plastics (7-10%), disposable syringes (0.3-0.5%), glass (3-5%) and other general wastes including food (40-45%). In general, the wastes are collected in a mixed form, transported and disposed of along with municipal solid wastes. At many places, authorities are failing to in stall appropriate systems for a variety of reasons, such as non-availabilit y of appropriate technologies, inadequate financial resources and absence o f professional training on waste management. Hazards associated with health -care waste management and shortcomings in the existing system are identifi ed. The rules for management and handling of biomedical wastes are summaris ed, giving the categories of different wastes, suggested storage containers including colour-coding and treatment options. Existing and proposed syste ms of health-care waste management are described. A waste-management plan f or health-care establishments is also proposed, which includes institutiona l arrangements, appropriate technologies, operational plans, financial mana gement and the drawing up of appropriate staff training programmes. (C) 200 1 Academic Press.