Hospital waste--the current and future treatment and disposal trends

Abstract

Hospital wastes pose a serious public health problem. This is primarily caused by the diversity of the individual components of the waste which constitute a risk to health if inadequately handled. It is evident that economic and technical conditions for both a safe disposal, including environmentally sound manner incineration as well as efficient stem or microwave disinfection and a safe management practice based on legal regulations consequently will contribute to protections of both human health and the environment. There is no reason to assume there may be any universal, standard regulations to be used and accepted unianimously and consistently valid for all countries. It is necessary to honor the specific, social and economic background of every country. Nevertheless the European Community principles of hospital waste treatment and disposal will be eventually accepted by this country in principal, in the framework of a general economic and political integration of European countries.