Humans ; Medical Waste Disposal ; Occupational Health

OBJECTIVES: An automatic needle destroyer (ANDY) was developed to prevent needlestick injuries, and usability tests were conducted in several hospitals. The addition of extra features to the ANDY is in progress, such as data collection and automatic identification of used syringes. Thus, this report describes how the ANDY can be used to track the data of used syringes. METHODS: The motor torque required for barrel separation differs according to syringe diameters. By monitoring the electric current which is consumed for the motor torque, the type of syringe can be identified. Twelve prototypes were produced, and five usability tests were conducted in hospitals. RESULTS: After use, a syringe is inserted into the proposed device, and the needle portion is then cut and separated from the syringe body (barrel) and discarded. The needles are collected in a sharps container for hygienic disposal, and the barrel is dropped into a general medical waste container. CONCLUSIONS: The ANDY can be used to track the syringe used for each patient. The barcode can be read while the syringe rotates in the main body of the ANDY with a built-in omnidirectional scanner. Collection of information during syringe disposal can facilitate stock management. This system could also be extended to other types of consumable medical devices, although it would still be a challenge to differentiate each medical device.
Data Collection* ; Disposable Equipment ; Equipment and Supplies ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Medical Waste ; Medical Waste Disposal ; Needles ; Needlestick Injuries ; Syringes* ; Torque

BACKGROUND: The increasing production of un-recycled waste is a great threat to public health. Therefore, assessment and measurement of people's beliefs and perceptions with regard to these threats can contribute to the development of suitable educational messages promoting waste separation behaviors. This study aimed to carry out the scale development and psychometric evaluation of behaviors and beliefs associated with waste separation among female students. METHOD: This methodological research was performed in 2019. The primary questionnaire was developed based on the assessment of waste separation beliefs and behaviors based on the extended parallel process model. Afterwards, to confirm the content and face validity of the research tool, the opinions of 14 faculty members and certain students were asked for, respectively. In order to assess the construct validity of the questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis was performed based on the data collected from 386 female students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The internal and external reliability of the tool was determined through estimating Cronbach's alpha and test-retest based on intraclass correlation (ICC) index, respectively. RESULTS: The mean age and academic semester of the students were 22 ± 1.9 years and 5.58 ± 2.6, respectively. The primary version of the questionnaire was designed with 65 items; one item was omitted during the content validity process. Construct validity with factor analysis technique yielded nine dimensions including 64 items with a factor loading above 0.3. The overall reliability of the research tool was confirmed at Cronbach's alpha of 0.87. Furthermore, the ICC of the entire questionnaire was 0.89. CONCLUSION According to the results of the study, the final 64-item questionnaire could be used by various researchers to assess waste separation beliefs and behaviors considering suitable psychometric features.
Female ; Humans ; Iran ; Medical Waste Disposal ; Psychometrics ; Students, Medical ; psychology ; Young Adult

In this cross-sectional study, data of collecting, classification, and managing solid waste was collected. 32 health staffs of General Hospital in Phu Tho province were interviewed. Results: total amount of medical solid waste was 132.71 kg a day. The process of collecting, storing, transporting and resolving solid waste is not suitable with the Health Ministry's rules. Medical officer's awareness about the managing of medical solid waste is still very limited
Medical Staff ; Medical Waste ; Waste Management ; hospitals

Management of enviromental pollution due to general waste and serious medical waste is urgent problem for the health facility. The Ministry of Health promulgated the regulation for management of the medical wastes. This is a legal document that the health facilities must implement. Most of the country’s hospitals have been built for many times (during the war against French and within more recent 30 years). They had not the network for treatment of waste or had a poor network
Medical Waste ; Health Facilities

Effect of hospital waste of Quang Nam Hospital on community health was studied in 315 people in studied place and 88 people in control place. People in studied place were more likely had history of dysentery syndrome than people in control place (p<0.001). The number of people with internal diseases in studied place was significantly was more than control place (p<0.001).These internal diseases were acute bronchitis (15.56%), gastrointestinal diseases (28.89%), nervous diseases (5.08%), urinary infection (4.13%) and anaemia. Skin and eye diseases were more common in people living in control place. Gynaecological diseases werethe same in two group
Medical Waste ; Hospitals

Health status of 263 people living in area near by Viet Tri province hospital (study group) was compared to that of 75 people in non-impacted area (control group). The result showed that weight and height of people in the study group was lower significantly than that of people in control group (45.84 +/- 6.28 and 1.53 +/- 0.07 compared with 49.18+/-7.03 and 1.56+/- 0.08, respectively). The number of people in the study group having history of dysentery symptom was higher than people in the control group (9.8% vs 15.9%). Due to impacts of environmental pollution, water and air pollution, the rate of people in study group with dermatophytosis diseases was higher clearly than people in control group. The dermatophytosis diseases included infected eczema, tinea pedis and tinea unguium
Medical Waste ; Health ; Epidemiology

Humans ; Medical Waste Disposal ; methods ; standards ; Public Health Administration ; legislation & jurisprudence ; standards

Health Facilities ; Humans ; Medical Waste Disposal ; methods ; standards ; Public Health Practice ; standards

BACKGROUNDIt is a common practice in developing countries that medical/infectious waste openly dumped with municipal solid waste. This paper presented a generation and characterization study of hospital waste. Determination of the waste composition is a basic step for selecting the most efficient treatment method of hospital waste.

METHODSStratified random sampling was used to collect the samples of general as well as medical wastes for seven days. Medical waste was sorted into 10 categories whereas general waste was classified into 11 categories. Incineration was observed thoroughly for observing flaws in the incineration process. Data was analyzed by using SPSS software version 16.0.

RESULTSThe studied hospital produced an average 297 kilograms of medical waste daily and it comprises plastics (71.0%), glass (13.9%), papers etc. (3.8%), cotton/dressings (5.7%), masks/gloves/sheets (0.3%) diapers (0.4%), wasted machines used in operation theaters (2.0%) and blades (0.1%). Laboratories, cancer ward, nursery ward, OPD and emergency ward are the largest infectious waste producing departments in the hospital. The hospital produced an average 3 511 kilograms of general waste daily in which organics constitute (44.3%), diapers etc. (42.8%), demolition materials (3.7%), plastic waste mixing medical plastic waste (2.5%), miscellaneous (2.14%), cloth/clothes (1.6%), cardboard (1.3%), papers (0.8%), cotton dressings (0.28%), glass (0.27%) and iron materials (0.18%). Other alarming facts are: medical waste is recycled in study area, after incineration of hospital waste, ash simply dumped in the premises of the hospital without any liner system.

CONCLUSIONSThe studied hospital produces 10% of infectious waste and 90% of general waste. The largest components of the infectious waste are plastic and glass. Organics and diapers are major components of the general waste coming from different sites of the hospital. Lack of training, inadequate knowledge regarding to the composition of the infectious waste and risks associated with the waste are the major issues which must be addressed and resolved.