This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0734242X09335693v1 27/4/354    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Mesdaghinia, A. Articles by Saeedi, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mesdaghinia, A. Articles by Saeedi, R. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Waste Management in Primary Health-Care Centers of Iran

Tehran University of Medical Sciences

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: knadafi{at}tums.ac.ir.

	Abstract

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.

First published on May 26, 2009, doi:10.1177/0734242X09335693

Waste Management & Research 2009;27:354.

A more recent version of this article appeared on June 1, 2009


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?