OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine if the collection, treatment and final disposal of hospital hazardous wastes conform to the rules and regulations and standards set by the Philippine Government and the World Health Organization (WHO).
METHODS: Three private and three government tertiary hospitals located in South Manila were randomly chosen and the companies that provides them with hospital waste disposal services were asked to participate in the study to validate their conformity to the national and international hazardous waste disposal standards. Validation was done through the use of observer checklists and photographs.
RESULTS: Results of the study showed that there were four companies who services 6 selected hospitals included in the study. All of these conformed to the standards of the World Health Organization, and to rules and regulations as set by the Philippine government. All of the companies conformed as to standards for Legal Permits, Off-site Transport, Personal Protective Devices and Off-Site Waste Disposal.
CONCLUSION: All of the companies servicing the 6 selected hospitals conformed to the standards set by WHO and the Philippine government.

Checklist ; Government ; Hazardous Waste ; Philippines ; Protective Devices ; Refuse Disposal ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Waste Disposal Facilities

Environmental Monitoring ; Groundwater ; Refuse Disposal ; Soil ; Waste Disposal Facilities ; Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis*

OBJECTIVES: This paper tried to review a recent research trend for the environmental exposure of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) and its removal efficiency in the nanowaste treatment plants. METHODS: The studies on the predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) of ENMs obtained by exposure modeling and treatment (or removal) efficiency in nanowaste treatment facilities, such as wastewater treatment plant (WTP) and waste incineration plant (WIP) were investigated. The studies on the landfill of nanowastes also were investigated. RESULTS: The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology group has led the way in developing methods for estimating ENM production and emissions. The PEC values are available for surface water, wastewater treatment plant effluents, biosolids, sediments, soils, and air. Based on the PEC modeling, the major routes for the environmental exposure of the ENMs were found as WTP effluents/sludge. The ENMs entered in the WTP were 90-99% removed and accumulated in the activated sludge and sludge cake. Additionally, the waste ash released from the WIP contain ENMs. Ultimately, landfills are the likely final destination of the disposed sludge or discarded ENMs products. CONCLUSIONS: Although the removal efficiency of the ENMs using nanowaste treatment facilities is acceptable, the ENMs were accumulated on the sludge and then finally moved to the landfill. Therefore, the monitoring for the ENMs in the environment where the WTP effluent is discharged or biomass disposed is required to increase our knowledge on the fate and transport of the ENMs and to prevent the unintentional exposure (release) in the environment.
Biomass ; Environmental Exposure ; Incineration ; Nanostructures ; Plants ; Sewage ; Soil ; Waste Disposal Facilities ; Waste Water ; Water pollution

A method of rapidly decaying livestock carcasses is sought through Corine glutamicum, and furthermore, lysosomes are used to remove toxic microorganisms from livestock carcasses. The landfill was constructed on a laboratory scale. Optimized growth conditions of C. glutamicum that could quickly decay livestock carcasses were determined. Lysosomes were extracted from egg whites and used to treat contaminated soil to confirm their antimicrobial activities. Condition of C. glutamicum was activated, regardless both anaerobic and aerobic conditions, soil exists and, to be close to the optimum conditions as possible temperatures, moisture content was about 1/10 of the culture. Lysosomes were found to be effective in clearing soil contamination. C. glutamicum can accelerate the decay of livestock carcasses. A combination of C. glutamicum and lysomes could be used to treat soil contamination caused by decomposition of livestock.
Burial* ; Corynebacterium glutamicum* ; Corynebacterium* ; Egg White ; Livestock* ; Lysosomes ; Methods ; Soil* ; Waste Disposal Facilities

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

Landfill is one of the important sources of carbon tetrachloride (CT) pollution, and it is important to understand the degradation mechanism of CT in landfill cover for better control. In this study, a simulated landfill cover system was set up, and the biotransformation mechanism of CT and the associated micro-ecology were investigated. The results showed that three stable functional zones along the depth, i.e., aerobic zone (0-15 cm), anoxic zone (15-45 cm) and anaerobic zone (> 45 cm), were generated because of long-term biological oxidation in landfill cover. There were significant differences in redox condition and microbial community structure in each zone, which provided microbial resources and favorable conditions for CT degradation. The results of biodegradation indicated that dechlorination of CT produced chloroform (CF), dichloromethane (DCM) and Cl^- in anaerobic and anoxic zones. The highest concentration of dechlorination products occurred at 30 cm, which were degraded rapidly in aerobic zone. In addition, CT degradation rate was 13.2-103.6 μg/(m²·d), which decreased with the increase of landfill gas flux. The analysis of diversity sequencing revealed that Mesorhizobium, Thiobacillus and Intrasporangium were potential CT-degraders in aerobic, anaerobic and anoxic zone, respectively. Moreover, six species of dechlorination bacteria and eighteen species of methanotrophs were also responsible for anaerobic transformation of CT and aerobic degradation of CF and DCM, respectively. Interestingly, anaerobic dechlorination and aerobic transformation occurred simultaneously in the anoxic zone in landfill cover. Furthermore, analysis of degradation mechanism suggested that generation of stable anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic zone by regulation was very important for the harmless removal of full halogenated hydrocarbon in vadose zone, and the increase of anoxic zone scale enhanced their removal. These results provide theoretical guidance for the removal of chlorinated pollutants in landfills.
Bacteria/metabolism* ; Biodegradation, Environmental ; Carbon Tetrachloride/metabolism* ; Methane/metabolism* ; Waste Disposal Facilities

A method of rapidly decaying livestock carcasses is sought through Corine glutamicum, and furthermore, lysosomes are used to remove toxic microorganisms from livestock carcasses. The landfill was constructed on a laboratory scale. Optimized growth conditions of C. glutamicum that could quickly decay livestock carcasses were determined. Lysosomes were extracted from egg whites and used to treat contaminated soil to confirm their antimicrobial activities. Condition of C. glutamicum was activated, regardless both anaerobic and aerobic conditions, soil exists and, to be close to the optimum conditions as possible temperatures, moisture content was about 1/10 of the culture. Lysosomes were found to be effective in clearing soil contamination. C. glutamicum can accelerate the decay of livestock carcasses. A combination of C. glutamicum and lysomes could be used to treat soil contamination caused by decomposition of livestock.
Burial ; Corynebacterium glutamicum ; Corynebacterium ; Egg White ; Livestock ; Lysosomes ; Methods ; Soil ; Waste Disposal Facilities

In September 1994, residents of Gozan-dong, Incheon City, made a petition to the government about their health problems which might be caused by previous glass fibre landfill nearby "H" company. In February 1995, at regular academic meeting of occupational and environmental medicine, a research team of "D" University presented that they had found glass fibres in groundwater of the area through their survey. They were suspicious of probable association between ingestion of groundwater contaminated with glass fibres and skin tumors among residents. A joint research team was formed and carried out the survey of environment concerning groundwater and its glass fibre existence, and health assessment of residents in the area and industrial workers of "H" company during May to November, 1995. Analysis of groundwater flow system indicates that the flow lines from the glass fibre landfill pass through or terminate at the 6 houses around the landfill. This means that the groundwater of the 6 houses around the glass fibre landfill could be affected by some possible contaminants from the landfill, but the groundwater quality of the other houses was irrelevant to the landfill. The qualitative and quatitative analyses for glass fibres in 54 groundwater samples including those from the nearby 6 houses, were carried out using SEM equipped with EDS, resulting in no evidence for the presence of glass fibres in the waters. Major precipitates, formed in waters while boiling, were identified as calcium carbonates, in particulary, aragonites in needle form. The results of health assessments of 889 residents in Gozan-dong, participated in this study, showed statistically significant differences in past medical histories of skin tumor and respiratory disease between the exposed group (31 persons who inhabited in 6 houses around the landfill) and the control group, but no significant differences in past medical histories of other diseases, such as cancer mortality, current gastroscopic findings, current skin diseases and respiratory diseases, etc. Also, we could not prove any glass fibres in excised specimens of 9 skin tumors in both groups and there were no health problems possibly associated with glass fibres in employees of the "H" company. After all, we could not authenticate the association, raised by prior investigators, between groundwater streams, assumedly contaminated with glass fibres or not, and specific disease morbidities or common disease/symptom prevalences. That is, we could not find any glass fibres in groundwater as the only exposure factor of this study hypothesis, and there were not enough certain evidences such as increasing disease prevalences, for examples, skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases etc, possibly related to glass fibre exposure, in exposed group. As a matter of course, the conditions for confirming causal association, for example, strength of the association, consistency of the association, specificity of the association, temporality of the association and dose-response relationship etc, have not been satisfied. In conclusion, we were not able to certify the hypothesis that contamination of groundwater with glass fibres might cause any hazardous health effects in human who used it for drinking.
Calcium ; Carbon ; Carbonates ; Drinking ; Eating ; Environmental Medicine ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Glass* ; Groundwater ; Humans ; Incheon* ; Joints ; Mortality ; Needles ; Prevalence ; Research Personnel ; Rivers ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Waste Disposal Facilities* ; Water