Anti-cancer drug waste disposal practices and wastewater management in hospitals: A Lebanese survey

INTRODUCTION

To achieve continuous environmental sustainability and protect the population's health, healthcare waste (in liquid or solid form) needs appropriate management and suitable treatment strategies before its final disposal in the environment in order to reduce its adverse impacts. This study aims to identify disparities in the waste management of anti-cancer drugs and the wastewater generated in Lebanese hospitals.

METHODS

Three questionnaires were designed to evaluate the level of knowledge, awareness and experience of hospital personnel regardless of their job levels. Data was collected in December 2019 from three departments of each participating hospital: pharmacy, oncology and maintenance departments. A descriptive analysis was conducted to summarise the survey results.

RESULTS

The results revealed a lack of transparency and awareness of the participants, with a high frequency of 'prefer not to say' responses when asked about the disposal methods of anti-cancer drugs and with only 5.7% of the participants in the pharmacy department sharing their disposal procedures. The same perception was deduced regarding hospitals' wastewater treatment, where responses were often contradicting, preventing making assumptions about the fate of hospital wastewater.

CONCLUSION

The results of this survey support the need to establish a more comprehensive waste management programme in Lebanon that would be maintained through regular training and supervision.

How COVID-19 pandemic affected medical waste management in Türkiye

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in medical waste in hospitals.

Aims

To evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting medical waste management in hospitals in Isparta Province, south-western Türkiye.

Methods

We examined medical waste production in 3 different types of hospital (1 private, 1 public and 1 university) in Isparta Province, south-western Türkiye. We compared the number of patients, amount of medical waste and occupancy rates of the 3 hospitals during the pre-pandemic (2019-2020) and pandemic (2020-2021) periods. The data were analysed using SPSS, version 22.0, and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

Results

During the pandemic, the number of inpatients in the public and university hospitals decreased, while the number in the private hospital increased. The amount of medical waste during the pre-pandemic period was 8.4 kg per person in the public hospital, 7.7 kg per person in the university hospital and 6.3 kg per person in the private hospital. During the pandemic, these amounts were 14.2 kg, 10.1 kg and 7.6 kg per person, respectively.

Conclusion

There was a significant increase in medical waste during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health institutions in Isparta Province, Türkiye, need to review their medical waste management strategies to better manage the increased waste.

Staff's attitude regarding hospital waste management in the dental college hospitals of Bangalore city, India

BACKGROUND

Growing urbanization has led to several changes in the healthcare sector. While on one hand, access to healthcare services are being provided to the community, thereby resulting in better health for all, improper management of biomedical waste emanating from these healthcare establishments has also given rise to many environmental and health problems (Acharya 2003). Although awareness in this issue has increased considerably over the last few years, sensitivity to this problem has been limited. Most hospitals are not actively involved in addressing this problem.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was conducted to assess the attitude of waste management among staff of dental hospitals in Bangalore city, by issuing a pre-tested structured questionnaire.

RESULTS

While 82.6% of attenders said that it is necessary to segregate waste into different categories at the point of origin, 61.5% of auxiliaries strongly disagreed that segregation of waste at source increases the risk of injury to waste handlers. As many as 33.5% of dentists strongly disagreed that segregation of waste at source increases the risk of injury to waste handlers and 53.6% agreed that segregation of waste at source does not increase the risk of injury to waste handlers.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study suggest that the staff had good attitude towards waste management among.