Establishing robust waste management policies within the organization, creating an awareness about the health hazards, having sufficient financial and human resources, monitoring and control of waste disposal are some of the challenges before hospitals in the area of biomedical waste management, according to experts.

At a day long workshop on 'Biomedical waste in Indian Hospitals: Trends, Technologies and Challenges' organized By ICRI Health India highlighted that 85 per cent of the biomedical waste generated from hospitals is non-infectious. But the 10 per cent is highly infectious and the remaining five per cent is hazardous which is the cause for blood borne injury and exposure to sharps.

This needs to be properly managed and with utmost care. Hospitals across the country need to segregate and adopt safe containment of waste at the health facility level. There should be processing and storage for terminal disposal. Bio-medical waste should not be mixed with other wastes. Segregation at the source, both at ward and unit level needs to be practiced, stated Dr Selwyn A Colaco, chief operating officer, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, Bangalore.

Bio-medical waste must be segregated into containers/bags at the point of generation in accordance with Schedule II (BMW Rules 1998) prior to its storage, transportation, treatment and disposal. Untreated bio-medical waste should not be kept beyond 48 hours, he added.

Measures should be taken to ensure that the waste does not adversely affect human health and the environment. In fact, the key reason for a growing number accidents arising out of biomedical waste handling is the lack of interest from senior management, no ownership of the process in constant monitoring and non compliance with colour coding, pointed out Dr Colaco.

According to CD Kumar, senior environmental officer, Karnataka Pollution Control Board, there are many hospitals where bio-hazardous wastes are managed casually. It gets mixed with Municipal solid waste. There is improper management and dumping of waste. There is adverse impact to Public Health & Environment and occupational risk.

There is a general lack of will and lack of awareness, misplaced priorities, poor liquid waste management, sharps mismanagement, poor plastics waste management, location of colour coded bins and absence of a common BMW treatment facility. Surprise waste audits is the need of the hour, stated Kumar.

Although biomedical waste management is enforced in all hospitals, there are instances where waste handlers including Nurses, Physicians, Housekeeping staff, maintenance department staff, etc get exposed to Blood, Body Fluids, Infected Linen, Spills and Splash. Each individual is responsible for reporting his/her own accidents, stated Dr Mudit Saxena, head Admin Services, Wockhardt Hospital, Bangalore.