Certain Hospital Waste Management Practices in Isfahan, Iran

Objectives: infected hospital wastes are among hazardous wastes, andspecial treatment methods are needed for their disposal. having informationabout present status of medical waste management systems isof great importance in finding weak, and for future planning. suchstudies have not been done for most of the hospitals in iran.methods: this paper reports the results of a study on the present statusof medical waste management in isfahan hospitals. a ten page researchermade questionnaire was used to collect data in terms of collection,transportation, segregation, treatment and disposal. for assessmentof autoclaves, standard tests including tst (time, steam, andtemperature) strip test and spore tests were used. samples were madeof stack gases of incinerators. quantity and composition of hospitalwastes in isfahan were also measured manually.results: of all wastes in selected hospitals, 40% were infected wastes(1.59 kg/day/bed), which is 15 to 20% higher than world health organization(who) standards. tst and spore test results were negativein all samples. stack gases analysis showed high concentration of co insome samples. besides, the combustion efficiency in some samples isless than 99.5%, which is the standard criterion in iran.conclusions: this study may create awareness regarding the magnitudeof the problem of waste management in hospitals of isfahan andmay stimulate interests for systematic control efforts for hospital wastedisposal. hospital waste management cannot succeed without documentedplans, certain equipment, defined staff trainings, and periodicevaluations.