Table 8.1.
Major sources of medical waster in hospitals and medical centers
| Location | Sharps | Infectious and pathological waste | Chemical, pharmaceutical, and cytotoxic waste | Nonhazardous or general waste |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical ward | Hypodermic needles, intravenous set needles, broken vials, and ampoules | Dressings, bandages, gauze, and cotton contaminated with blood or body fluids; gloves and masks contaminated with blood or body fluids | Broken thermometers and blood-pressure gauges, spilt medicines, spent disinfectants | Packaging, food scraps, paper, flowers, empty saline bottles, nonbloody diapers, nonbloody intravenous tubing and bags |
| Operating theater | Needles, intravenous sets, scalpels, blades, saws | Blood and other body fluids; suction canisters; gowns, gloves, masks, gauze and other waste contaminated with blood and body fluids; tissues, organs, fetuses, body parts | Spent disinfectants Waste anesthetic gases |
Packaging; uncontaminated gowns, gloves, masks, hats, and shoe covers |
| Laboratory | Needles, broken glass, Petri dishes, slides and cover slips, broken pipettes | Blood and body fluids, microbiological cultures and stocks, tissue, infected animal carcasses, tubes and containers contaminated with blood or body fluids | Fixatives; formalin; xylene, toluene, methanol, methylene chloride, and other solvents; broken lab thermometers | Packaging, paper, plastic containers |
| Pharmacy store | Expired drugs, spilt drugs | Packaging, paper, empty containers | ||
| Radiology | Silver, fixing and developing solutions; acetic acid; glutaraldehyde | Packaging, paper | ||
| Chemotherapy | Needles and syringes | Bulk chemotherapeutic waste; vials, gloves, and other material contaminated with cytotoxic agents; contaminated excreta and urine | Packaging, paper | |
| Vaccination campaigns | Needles and syringes | Bulk vaccine waste, vials, gloves | Packaging | |
| Environmental services | Broken glass | Disinfectants (glutaraldehyde, phenols, etc.), cleaners, spilt mercury, pesticides | Packaging, flowers, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, plastic and glass containers, yard and plant waste | |
| Engineering | Cleaning solvents, oils, lubricants, thinners, asbestos, broken mercury devices, batteries | Packaging, construction or demolition waste, wood, metal | ||
| Food services | Food scraps; plastic, metal, and glass containers; packaging | |||