BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

S.Chandralekha

Lecturer,

Department of Mechatronics Engineeering,

K.S.Rangasamy College of Technology,

Tiruchengode.

ABSTRACT

The development in agriculture, industry, medical field and transportation has made human

life more comfortable, luxurious, convenient and safe. Now-a-days clinics, hospitals,

medical colleges, nursing homes, medical laboratories & research centers have sprung not

only in the metros but even in towns & villages. In recent years, the medical waste

generated by these hospitals has been the subject of considerable public and government

attention. Studies have reported that medical waste does not have a separate line of disposal

in most of the places. As a result hospital waste is thrown outside the hospitals and finally

this waste finds its way into municipal waste and gets disposed off with other waste. Stray

animals like dogs, cows, and pigs visit the dump site and feed on the infectious waste,

which serve to the spread of disease, causing threat to environment. Also the municipal

employees and rag pickers are posed to greater risk due to direct exposure to these

infectious wastes. The improper management of biomedical waste causes serious

environmental problems in terms of air, water and land pollution. Environmental problems

may arise due to the mere generation of biomedical waste and from the process of

handling, treatment and disposal. Many of the environmental problems can be solved with

available technology, but unfortunately the efforts being made are inadequate and needs

proper management. Although pollution cannot mitigate completely it can be reduced to

some extent.

This paper is a case study of biomedical waste management practices adopted in Vellore by

Ken Bio-links Private limited, revealing the common disposal practices adopted here and

illustrating the typical Indian scenario. This paper also investigates the characterization and

hazards of biomedical waste and review the legal provisions in India for biomedical

waste management and also assess the chemical characteristics of the leachate from the

land filled incinerator ash residue. The occupational risk of workers handling this waste

and collection practices are elaborated in the Indian context..

The main aim of the paper “is to bring to the forefront the environmental problems

especially biomedical waste problems and issues to the enhancement of public awareness

and concern for the human environment”.

INTRODUCTION: Biomedical waste means any waste, which is generated during the

diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities

pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biologicals. It may include wastes like sharps,

solid waste, disposables, anatomical waste, lab cultures, discarded medicine, chemical waste etc.

For selecting the most efficient treatment method of hospital wastes, the composition analysis is

considered to be the fundamental information. Improvement of waste management in clinics and

hospitals is urgently needed both for combating occupational health hazards as well as to

safeguard the environment.

CLASSIFICATION OF BIOMEDICAL WASTE :These wastes includes all types of waste

generated by health centers including hospitals, clinics, doctor’s office, dental office, veterinary

facilities and other medical facilities.The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the

biomedical waste into 8 categories they are General waste, Pathological waste, Radioactive

waste, Chemical waste, Infectious waste, Sharps, Pharmaceutical waste & Pressurized waste.

In developing countries for practical purpose, WHO has reduced this list to 5

Categories, which is given below:

1. General non-hazardous waste

2. Sharps

3. Chemical &Pharmaceutical waste

4. Infectious waste and

5. Other hazardous waste

International Biohazard Symbol

In INDIA according to Biomedical Waste (Handling & Management) Rules 1998

the biomedical wastes are classified as below

Table1: categories of Biomedical waste

Category

No

Waste Category Waste Content

1 Human Anatomical Waste Human tissues, organs, body parts

2 Animal Waste Animal tissues, organs, body parts

carcasses, bleeding parts, fluids, blood

and experimental animals used in

research ,waste generated by veterinary

hospitals, discharge from hospitals

,animal houses.

3 Microbiology &

Biotechnology waste

Wastes from lab cultures, stocks or

specimens of micro-organisms live or

attenuated vaccines, human and animal

cell culture used in research and

infectious agents from research and

industrial labs, wastes from production of

biologicals, toxins, dishes and devices

used for transfer of cultures.

4 Waste Sharps Needless, syringes, scalpels, blades, glass

etc.that may cause punctures & cuts. This

includes both used and unused sharps

5 Discarded Medicines &

Cytotoxic Drugs

Waste comprising of outdated,

contaminated and discarded medicines.

6 [Soiled] Waste Items contaminated with blood, and body

fluids including cotton, dressings, soiled

plaster casts, lines beddings, other

material contaminated with blood.

7 Solid Waste Waste generated from disposable items

other than the waste sharps such as

tubing, catheters, intravenous sets etc.

8 Liquid Waste Waste generated from laboratory and

washing, cleaning, house-keeping and

disinfecting activities.

9 Incineration Ash Ash from incineration of any bio-medical

waste

10 Chemical Waste Chemicals used in production for

biologicals, chemicals used in

disinfection, as insecticides, etc.

HAZARDS FROM BIOMEDICAL WASTE: According to the World Health

Organization (WHO), the global life expectancy is increasing year after year.

However, deaths due to infectious disease are increasing. A study conducted by

WHO in 1996, reveals that more than 50,000 people die everyday from infectious

diseases. One of the causes for the increase in infectious diseases is improper waste

management. Body fluids ,blood and body secretions which are constituents of

biomedical waste most of the viruses, bacteria and parasites that cause infection.

This passed via a number of human contacts, all of whom are potential recipients of

the infection. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis viruses

spearhead an extensive list of infections and diseases documented to have spread

through biomedical waste. Tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea diseases, tetanus,

whooping cough etc., are the other common diseases spread due to improper waste

management. The main group at risk is the following

� Medical doctors, nurses, and hospital maintenance personnel

� Patients in hospital or receiving home care

� Visitors to hospitals

� Workers in support services allied to hospitals such as laundries, waste

handling and transportation

� Workers in waste disposal facilities (including scavengers)

Case Study: Vellore Bio-Links: Ken Bio-Links Private Limited

Fig 1: Front view of the Plant

Handling only biomedical waste for common biomedical waste treatment facility

concentrating on nearby districts Vellore & Tiruvannamalai districts -private

hospitals.Nearly 10 tonnes of wastes they treat per day using Incinerator, Autoclave,

shredder & Effluent Treatment Plant is functioning here.

Incinerator: Incineration is an ultimate treatment process, applied to certain wastes that

cannot be recycled, reused or safely deposited in a landfill. Incineration is a high

temperature dry oxidation process that reduces organic & combustible waste to inorganic,

incombustible matter and results in a very significant reduction of waste volume and

weight. Here in our case, before feeding the waste into incinerator, the employees who

were provided with sufficient Personal Protective Equipment are categorizing the wastes as

burnable and non-burnable. Only burnable wastes are taken for incineration so as to turn

them into ashes. The gases are vented into the atmosphere through gas cleaning system as

may be necessary while the solid residue is sent for direct disposal into the landfill. The

incinerator is installed with Air Pollution Control Device – Packed Scrubber and the setup

is as per the statutory requirements. Fig: 2 Incinerator

Autoclave: It is a low heat thermal process where steam is brought into direct contact with

waste in a controlled manner and for sufficient duration to disinfect the waste.

In our case after disinfecting the waste, it is fed into the shredder to churn into pieces and

buried in the pit. Fig 3: Autoclave & Shredder

Shredder: It is a process by which waste are deshaped or cut into smaller pieces so as to

make the waste unrecognizable. It helps in prevention of reuse of BMW and also acts as

identifier that the waste has been disinfected and is safe to dispose off.

Effluent Treatment Plant: A suitable Effluent treatment plant shall be installed to ensure

that liquid effluent generated during the process of washing containers, vehicles, floors etc.,

is disposed of after treatment .the treated effluent shall comply with the stipulated

regulatory requirements. Fig 4: ETP & Vehicle

Chemical characterization of leachate: The present study was conducted with an

objective to determine the chemical characterization of leachate in the medical waste

incinerator ash in Indian scenario. The Sample (ashes) is collected from Ken-Biolinks .

Materials and Methods: The Sample (Ash) is taken (50 gm) and dissolved in 500ml of

distilled water and it is stirred for half an hour, the sediments are allowed to settle (24-

hours) and the supernatant solution was taken, filtered and analyzed for assumed

parameters using standard methods and the results are

Table 2:

Variation in Chemical Concentration of Leachate with respect to time:

The variation is analyzed for six set of samples by dissolving 500g of sample (ash) in 5

litres of distilled water and it is stirred well, 600ml of supernatant solution was collected at

15minutes time interval for 1hr and the final sample was collected at the end of 2hrs

Chemical analysis of samples were done as per standard methods.

Results:

pH 9.8

TDS 7290mg/l

Chloride 18mg/g (6212.5mg/l)

Sulphate 29.23mg/g (2520mg/l)

Total Hardness 8.62mg/g (2975mg/l)

Calcium 3.10mg/g (1070mg/l)

Magnesium .208mg/g (72mg/l)

Effect of time on pH

9.6

9.8

10

10.2

10.4

10.6

10.8

11

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Time (min)

pH

Effect of time on TDS

5000

5200

5400

0 50 100 150

Time(min)

Concentrati

on(mg/l)

TDS

Effect of time on Hardness

10

11

12

13

14

15

0 40 80 120

Time(min)

Concentration(mg/g)

Hardness

Effect of time on Calcium

1

2

3

4

5

0 50 100 150

Time(min)

Concentration(m

g/g)

Calcium

Effect of time on Magnesium

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

0 50 100 150

Time (min)

Concentration(m

g/l)

Magnesium

From these graphs ,the concentration of the assumed parameters increases as time

increases and after 1 hr it becomes a constant value.

Column Study:

A column (PVC pipe) of 45 cm height with 5cm diameter is taken, the bottom of

the column is closed with a filter paper and a cloth is tied around it. The disposal

site soil is filled in the column up to 5cm followed by the sample (ash) up to 10 cm

and water is added constantly into the column. The filtered sample has been

collected and analyzed. The same setup is followed for treatment process and the

place of ash will be substituted by ash + 5% of cement/lime +10% moisture and the

same procedure is continued and filtered sample is collected and analyzed.

Fig: 5 Column setup

Results:

pH

0

3

6

9

12

15

Before Treatment After Treatment

(lime)

After Treatment

(Cement)

Concentration (mg/l)

pH

TDS

1000

1400

1800

2200

2600

Before Treatment After Treatment

(lime)

After Treatment

(cement)

Concentration(mg/l)

TDS

From the results, I conclude that cement is effective than lime for stabilizing the

chemical characteristics of the leachate to stay within permissible limits.

CONCLUSION: We should be at the view that waste management system

incorporated right from the designing stage. It should not be an addition to the

infrastructure later on. It should be considered as an integral part of any modern

hospital design. Proper disposal of incinerator ash is therefore important to

minimize environmental pollution. Land filling of incinerator residue is the best

way of disposal, as the mobility of heavy metals inside landfill is very low. The

complete wash out of metal may require thousands of years or more. Hence proper

disposal of incinerator ash would require regular analytical monitoring to ensure the

concentration are within permissible limits.

“It’s not just environmental services who are responsible for waste management,

it’s everybody”

REFERENCES:

[1] http://www.ojhas.org/issue10/2004-2-2.htm

[2]www.cpcb.nic.in

[3] www.medind.nic.in

[4] Enviromedia 2005,Poll Res.24(3):641-646

[5]Vellore Bio-Links Report

Total Hardness

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

Before Treatment After Treatment

(lime)

After Treatment

(cement)

Concentration (mg/l)

TH

CHLORIDE

-50

100

250

400

550

700

850

1000

1150

Before Treatment After Treatment

(lime)

After Treatment

(cement)

Concentration (mg/l)

Chloride

CALCIUM

0

300

600

900

1200

1500

Before Treatment After Treatment

(lime)

After Treatment

(cement)

Concentration (mg/l)

Calcium

MAGNESIUM

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Before Treatment After Treatment

(lime)

After Treatment

(cement)

Concentration (mg/l)

Magnesium