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Waste Management & Research
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Waste management in primary healthcare centres of Iran

Alireza Mesdaghinia

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Center for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Kazem Naddafi

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Center for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, knadafi{at}tums.ac.ir

Amir Hossein Mahvi

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Center for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Reza Saeedi

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Center for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

The waste management practices in primary healthcare centres of Iran were investigated in the present study. A total of 120 primary healthcare centres located across the country were selected using the cluster sampling method and the current situation of healthcare waste management was determined through field investigation. The quantities of solid waste and wastewater generation per outpatient were found to be 60 g outpatient—1 day—1 and 26 L outpatient—1 day— 1, respectively. In all of the facilities, sharp objects were separated almost completely, but separation of other types of hazardous healthcare solid waste was only done in 25% of the centres. The separated hazardous solid waste materials were treated by incineration, temporary incineration and open burning methods in 32.5, 8.3 and 42.5% of the healthcare centres, respectively. In 16.7% of the centres the hazardous solid wastes were disposed of without any treatment. These results indicate that the management of waste materials in primary healthcare centres in Iran faced some problems. Staff training and awareness, separation of healthcare solid waste, establishment of the autoclave method for healthcare solid waste treatment and construction of septic tanks and disinfection units in the centres that were without access to a sewer system are the major measures that are suggested for improvement of the waste management practices.

Key Words: Primary healthcare centre • healthcare waste • solid waste • wastewater • Iran • wmr 08—0180

This version was published on June 1, 2009

Waste Management & Research, Vol. 27, No. 4, 354-361 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X09335693
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