446 Health Care Waste
➏ Find out how waste is handled and disposed of.
Follow waste from where it is made, to where it is stored, and where
it leaves the health center. Is the waste picked up regularly? How is it
collected? Do waste handlers wear gloves, shoes, or other protective
clothing? Is it transported in safe containers?
Waste handlers often sell whatever they can to junk dealers. This can
be safe or dangerous depending on how waste is separated and disinfected.
Do waste collectors pull reusable and recyclable
materials out of the waste safely? Is there a way
to make a safer system for those who make a
living handling or selling waste?
Is the waste taken to a
dump site or an incinerator? If
possible, visit the place where
waste is dumped. Does it remain
separated, or is it mixed with
other kinds of waste? Does
it lead to health risks for the
community, such as sharps in an
open dump site?
➐ Take action!
What happens in the health center eventually touches everyone in the
community. Taking even small steps to make waste handling safer will
reduce harm to people and the environment. Which improvements are
possible for the health center to make now? How can the health center
influence what happens to waste once it is taken away to a landfill or
incinerator?
➑ Regularly educate and train all workers.
The success of any safety plan relies on continuing to educate and train
everyone who handles and creates health care waste. It is easy to become
careless with safety practices when nothing harmful seems to happen.
Repeating a waste assessment every year can help remind people of the
importance of being careful.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012