Are you sure your hazardous waste is being properly disposed of? Do you have a good system of medical waste removal in place? Let a medical waste disposal company organize and carry out a plan for you.
An estimated 16,000 million injections are administered yearly, worldwide; unfortunately, not all of the syringes and needles are properly disposed of afterwards. The World Heath Organization estimates that in the year 2000, 260 000 HIV infections, two million hepatitis C virus infections, and 21 million hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections worldwide were caused by injections from contaminated syringes. Had the syringes been disposed of using proper medical waste removal procedures, such as those used by a medical waste disposal company, many of these infections could have been avoided entirely.
Biohazard wastes are broken into three categories:
- infectious and anatomical wastes
- hazardous wastes
- radioactive wastes
Chemical and pharmaceutical waste accounts for about 3% of all waste from health care activities, while radioactive matter, genotoxic waste, and heavy metal content accounts for only about 1% of health care waste. Sharps waste represents only about 1% of the entire waste, but if not properly managed they are a serious source of communicable disease transmission. A medical waste disposal company safely removes these hazards.
According to the World Health Organization, an average of 80% of hospital waste produced by health care is general waste. The remaining 20% is considered to be biohazard waste. While 80% of hospital waste can be treated as normal garbage, the rest (400,000 tons a year) must be handled with great care. If it is disposed of incorrectly, there could be exposure to infectious diseases of health care workers, patients, waste disposal professionals, and even the general public.
Yearly, there are two million tons of medical waste produced. Daily, that?s 5,500 tons of medical waste produced. While most of it comes from hospitals, other sources include dental practices, doctor?s offices, laboratories, research facilities, and veterinarian offices. High amounts of this waste are also produced by companies that manufacture pharmaceuticals.
The most common method of disposal companies use for hazardous pharmaceutical waste is incineration; about 90% of all medical waste is incinerated, while more than 3 billion needles are thrown in the trash yearly by individuals who are self treating illnesses, such as diabetes. That is not safe and not how you want hazardous waste disposed of.
Don?t leave these materials to chance. Don?t expose yourself and others to risk. Let a medical waste disposal company put your mind at ease.
