Medical Waste Management in Iran: A Case Study About Isfahan

Infected medical wastes are among hazardous wastes, and special treatment methods are needed for their disposal. Incineration and Autoclave methods are commonly used methods for medical waste treatment in Iran.This paper reports the results of our study on the condition of medical waste management in Isfahan hospitals. For assessment of autoclaves, TST and spore tests were used. Samples were made of stack gases of incinerators. We also measured the quantity and combination of medical wastes in Isfahan manually. Of all the medical wastes in selected hospitals, 40% were infected and 60% were non-infected wastes. The quantity of infected ones is 15 to 20% higher than WHO standards, which might be due to an inappropriate separation process of wastes. Waste generation rate per bed was 1.59 for infected and 2.39 kg/day for non-infected one. TST and Spore Test results were negative in all samples. Stack gases analysis showed high concentration of CO in some samples. Besides, the combustion efficiency in some samples is less than 99.5%, which is the standard criterion based on administrational regulations of the waste management law in Iran

Keywords:

Infected Wastes , Segregation , Composition , Incineration , Autoclave