Patients with this debilitating virus produce 440 gallons of medical waste daily, including instruments, gowns, gloves, body fluids, sheets, mattresses and more. That’s a substantial amount of medical waste in any situation, but it’s especially daunting in this case because it needs to be disposed of extremely cautiously, to avoid the risk of spreading infection. What do you do with a problem like Ebola waste? Because you don’t want to toss it in the garbage.

Somewhat surprisingly, says Bausch, the United States actually faces bigger problems when it comes to safely disposing of Ebola waste, which is simply burned in large pits in Africa: “In the United States, of course, we are somewhat beholden to higher tech solutions, which in some ways are a little bit more problematic in terms of treating all that waste, and we need autoclaves or incinerators that can handle that sort of thing. It’s not the actual inactivation that’s particularly difficult; it’s just the process of getting the waste from, of course, the frontline of care and interaction with the patients safely to the place where it can be incinerated or autoclaved.”

The problem in the United States is ironically compounded by the increased access to medical care, and the higher quality of medical services, available. In the United States, patients are treated by medical teams with access to a huge volume of supplies they use for protection, including masks, gowns, booties, and gloves, along with sanitizers and other tools. Moreover, patients receive extensive medical interventions that generate waste like needles, tubing, medical tape, empty IV bags, and more. The very care that has helped most of the handful of Ebola patients in the United States conquer the disease has contributed to the huge amount of waste generated, highlighting a critical hole in U.S. medical infrastructure — while African hospitals may have lacked the supplies and personnel needed to supply aid to Ebola patients, they’re at least prepared to handle the waste.

The CDC just issued guidelines to help clinicians and administrators decide upon how to handle Ebola waste, but The New York Times notes that many facilities don’t have the autoclave, and incinerator, capacity to handle medical waste on this scale. Some states prohibit the burning of medical waste altogether, or have barred incineration of Ebola waste, leading to the transport of waste across state borders to facilities that can handle it, which poses its own risks; with every mile added to transport, there’s a greater risk of spreading disease to previously unexposed communities.

Surprisingly, defenders of burning the waste come from surprising corners. Environmentals like Allen Hershkowitz, National Resources Defense Council senior scientist, point out that: “There’s no pollutant that’s going to come out of a waste incinerator that’s more dangerous than the Ebola virus. When you’re dealing with pathogenic and biological hazards, sometimes the safest thing to do is combustion.”

The argument in defense of incineration can be bolstered by the fact that medical waste companies specialize in high-efficiency incineration with equipment designed to minimize and trap byproducts of combustion, reducing overall pollution considerably. Fears about Ebola, rather than genuine environmental or public health concerns, are driving the decision to push against incineration of ebola waste in many regions, but eventually, the United States is going to have to face facts: The mounting waste that accumulates in facilities where Ebola patients receive treatments needs to be disposed of safely, and promptly.

by: http://www.care2.com/causes/an-unexpected-ebola-infrastructure-problem-waste.html

Medical Waste Removal Companies Medical Waste Service Suggestions There are different types of wastes that people need to be conscious about in order to avoid exposure to this waste that may cause health illnesses and diseases. One of the most dangerous types of waste that people need to get rid of is hazardous wastes. These are the type of wastes that completely pose potential or substantial threats to people particularly to public health and to the environment. These wastes are also known as special wastes since they cannot be quickly disposed compared to other types of wastes.

Thus, in order to relieve all the worries of the people regarding this matter Meda Send offers hazardous waste disposal that could help medical facilities. They are providing cost-effective as well as safe services that could easily and effective disposed your hazardous waste. They are very consistent in giving safe as well as environmental-friendly services to the people in order to disposed common existing hazardous waste in medical facilities. They are the best company that would lend your medical facility hazardous waste disposal plan that would be effective towards your aim for a healthy and safe environment for the people.
Pathological Waste Definition

Hazardous wastes are those chemicals and medicines that are toxic and infectious that can effectively affect the health of the people upon exposed. These may also be laboratory medicines which are used by doctors in aid for harsh and severe diseases and illnesses of patients. Disposing these hazardous waste would not be a difficult task since Meda Send would be your help in this matter. They are going to provide medical facilities containers in colored red covered by red plastic where they can put their hazardous wastes. They are also giving medical facilities adequate time in collecting all the hazardous wastes that may be found in their place. This is essential before allowing the pickup truck of the company to get your collected hazardous wastes.

They are very much concern on the health of the people inside and outside of their medical facility hence they wanted to make sure that they would not be exposed and be inflicted with the toxins and other harmful chemicals coming from this hazardous waste. Since Meda Send is always available, medical facilities would always have an assurance of a quick disposal of waste particularly when there are already huge quantity of hazardous waste in their place.
medasend.com Sharps

Hazardous waste disposal could be an easy task for all medical facilities particularly if they are going to seek any of the waste management disposal services of Meda Send. Don’t miss the opportunity to avail any of the services offered by Meda Send for a healthy and safe environment. This would always guarantee that you will have a healthy environment that is free elements that pose health risks.

Most people know that there is a large amount of medical wastes that are being produced by most of the medical facilities like hospitals, clinics and many other health facilities each day. These wastes need to be properly collected, transported, segregated, and disposed to its proper places and condition. Although some medical facilities are considered to be proficient and knowledgeable in disposing their wastes, they still need to seek a company that could guide them and help them on how they are going to dispose their waste properly particularly when instances that they can no longer handle proper medical waste in their place.

That is why Meda Send would be an effective answer to what medical facilities are greatly in need of in terms of their wastes and garbage each day. They are one of the highly recognized companies all over the world that is highly specialized when it comes to healthcare and proper medical waste disposal. They are not just aiming to help people in managing their waste sine they also aim to provide a healthy community free from diseases and illnesses that may be due to improper disposal of waste.
medasend.com Posts

Meda Send is very committed and devoted in giving waste services to all the people. They can effectively handle medical disposal needs of medical facilities with their speed as well as accuracy. They are very effective in providing the people waste management services which aims for a healthy environment not only covered by the people who are inside the medical facility but also with all the people in the community. With the help of medical waste disposal services of the company, people are guided with the proper waste management they need to do. This is not only good for nurses and doctors but for all the people as well.

They are given greater chance to be well-equipped with the proper segregation of waste. This is very important to get rid of risk since these wastes are considered to be harmful to people and to the environment. They are taught on the right place where to put their waste. This is through allowing them to segregate their waste in a red plastic. Medical waste disposal of the company is known to be very effective and efficient since they are providing consistent type of truck pickup grid making the people feel at ease in scheduling medical waste pickups. They are also available 24/7 hence they make sure that waste compliance needs of the people are given high importance that the company is not taking for granted.

So, for medical facilities that are rendering services to large or small group of people, Meda Send could be one of the best companies that could give you safe and healthy environment that could cater the needs of the people towards a healthy and safe community to live.

by: http://ourbdspace.com/blog/34552/medical-waste-incinerator-essential-medical-waste-disposal-services-provide/

A single Ebola patient treated in a U.S. hospital will generate eight 55-gallon barrels of medical waste each day.

Protective gloves, gowns, masks and booties are donned and doffed by all who approach the patient’s bedside and then discarded. Disposable medical instruments, packaging, bed linens, cups, plates, tissues, towels, pillowcases and anything that is used to clean up after the patient must be thrown away.

Even curtains, privacy screens and mattresses eventually must be treated as contaminated medical waste and disposed of.

Dealing with this collection of pathogen-filled debris without triggering new infections is a legal and logistical challenge for every U.S. hospital now preparing for a potential visit by the virus.

In California and other states, it is an even worse waste-management nightmare.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends autoclaving (a form of sterilizing) or incinerating the waste as a surefire means of destroying the microbes, burning infected waste is effectively prohibited in California, and banned in several other states.

“Storage, transportation and disposal of this waste will be a major problem,” California Hospital Association President C. Duane Dauner warned Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in a letter last week.

Even some states that normally permit incineration are throwing up barriers to Ebola waste.

In Missouri, the state attorney general has sought to bar Ebola-contaminated debris from a St. Louis incinerator operated by Stericycle Inc., the nation’s largest medical waste disposal company.

Due to restrictions on burning, California hospital representatives say their only option appears to be trucking the waste over public highways and incinerating it in another state — a prospect that makes some environmental advocates uneasy.

Rules for transport

Under federal transportation guidelines, the material would be designated a Class A infectious substance, or one that is capable of causing death or permanent disability, and would require special approval from the Department of Transportation, hospital representatives say.

“These are some pretty big issues and they need some quick attention,” said Jennifer Bayer, spokeswoman for the Hospital Association of Southern California.

“We fully expect that it’s coming our way,” Bayer said of the virus. “Not to create any sort of scare, but just given the makeup of our population and the hub that we are. It’s very likely.”

The Ebola virus is essentially a string of genetic material wrapped in a protein jacket. It cannot survive a 1,500-degree scorching within an incinerator, or the prolonged, pressurized steam of an autoclave.

“The Ebola virus itself is not particularly hardy,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said under questioning on Capitol Hill recently. “It’s killed by bleach, by autoclaving, by a variety of chemicals.”

However, CDC guidelines note that “chemical inactivation” has yet to be standardized and could trigger worker safety regulations.

Getting ready

California health officials recently tried to reassure residents that the state’s private and public hospitals were up to the task and were actively training for the possible arrival of Ebola.

“Ebola does not pose a significant public health risk to California communities at the present time,” said Dr. Gil Chavez, an epidemiologist and deputy director at the California Department of Public Health. “Let me tell you why: Current scientific evidence specifies that people cannot get Ebola through the air, food or water. … The Ebola virus does not survive more than a few hours on impervious surfaces.”

It was unclear whether California officials viewed the waste issue as a potential problem.

Although one-third of the state’s private hospitals and “a few” of its public hospitals reported to Boxer’s office that there would be problems complying with the CDC’s incineration recommendation, and others, a state public health official told reporters he was not aware of any conflicts.

Dr. David Perrott, chief medical officer for the California Hospital Association, said there was also confusion about whether infected human waste could be flushed down the toilet.

“Here’s what we’ve heard from the CDC: It’s OK,” Perrott said. “But then we’ve heard from some sources, that maybe we need to sterilize it somehow and then flush it down the toilet or you have to check with local authorities. It sounds maybe a little gross, but there is a real question about what to do with that waste.”

Overreaction?

Dr. Thomas Ksiazek, a professor of microbiology and immunology of the University of Texas Medical Branch, has said he believes there’s been a lot of overreaction about Ebola medical waste.

“There are other ways to deal with the waste; autoclaving would be chief among them,” Ksiazek said. “The problem is, most hospitals don’t use it for most disposable items. They’re quite happy to bag them up and send them to a regular medical disposal company.”

But Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said incineration is simple and effective, and should be available to hospitals to help dispose of the mountain of waste.

Hershkowitz said states began to crack down on medical waste incineration years ago because materials that didn’t need to be burned were being sent to combustors and were emitting dangerous pollutants.

In this case of Ebola medical waste, he said California should reconsider its restrictions.

“There’s no pollutant that’s going to come out of a waste incinerator that’s more dangerous than the Ebola virus,” Hershkowitz said. “When you’re dealing with pathogenic and biological hazards, sometimes the safest thing to do is combustion.”

by: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Another-challenge-disposing-of-waste-5909413.php

The Board of County Commissioners struck down plans Thursday for a regional waste-to-energy incinerator, opting to haul the county’s waste to a landfill with a short-term contract instead.

In a 3-2 vote, Commissioners President Blaine Young and commissioners Kirby Delauter and David Gray voted to kill the $471 million incinerator project by canceling the contract and related permits. Commissioners Paul Smith and Billy Shreve cast the dissenting votes to keep the project on the table while the county explores its options.

“It is absolutely no cost to the county to keep these options open,” Smith said. “To do away with these options is crazy.”

Terminating the project will not cost the county any money as the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, a quasi-governmental agency that helps the county meet its trash disposal needs, will pay the $500,000 termination fee. Any remaining funds after this payment will be divided between Frederick County and Carroll County, which was once a partner in the project. These funds are from payments the authority has received from Wheelabrator after the service contract was executed in 2010.

However, Young said he saw no point in voting to keep plans for an incinerator, which would burn trash into energy, open since County Executive-elect Jan Gardner planned to scrap the facility after taking office Dec. 1.

“If the county executive-elect says terminate the project, what are you going to do within the next 30 to 60 days to convince her not to?” Young said.

County Attorney John Mathias said Gardner held the power to determine the fate of the incinerator project, not the County Council, if a decision was not made Thursday.

“I think you should terminate the whole thing,” Gardner testified in front of the board and roughly 100 people gathered at Winchester Hall, garnering some applause.

The board unanimously voted in favor of hauling the county’s trash to an out-of-state landfill for $50.95 per ton with a maximum five-year contract.

After considering five proposals, including three out-of-state landfills and two waste-to-energy facilities outside of Maryland, the commissioners narrowed down their options between two landfills with varying contracts.

Commissioners previously leaned toward the first option, which offered contracts extending 25 years at an average of $54.97 per ton, although that cost could escalate annually with the consumer price index and fuel prices. However, the board unanimously chose the second option, which Gardner also favored.

About 30 people testified in front of the board regarding the incinerator project, with a little more than half in favor of scrapping it and the rest advocating for keeping the project on the table to consider it more deeply.

“The incinerator is a waste of energy, a waste of resources (and) a waste of money,” Brunswick resident Ellis Burruss testified. “It would be good to not waste any more time on it.”

Other residents noted the proposed location of the incinerator, near Monocacy National Battlefield, would ruin the park’s beauty and tourism.

However, resident Greg Brown voiced his support for a regional incinerator, noting it was more environmentally friendly than the other options commissioners were considering.

“Even the best landfills … are at least three times more pollutant than a waste-to-energy facility,” Brown said.

Another resident said Europe has been building waste-to-energy facilities for years without the negative consequences that many have brought up.

Jim Warner, CEO of the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority in Pennsylvania, pitched a proposal for hauling the county’s trash, but the commissioners decided to go with an undisclosed out-of-state landfill with a short contract.

“I was actually for this (incinerator project), but with the energy prices and Carroll County dropping out … I’m not,” Delauter said, echoing the sentiments of Young and Gray.

by: http://besttopics.net/link/214519_county-scraps-plans-for-waste-to-energy-incinerator-politics-and-government-frederick-news-post

The Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District is suing Maxxam Analytics International Corp. and Covanta Burnaby Renewable Energy ULC for allegedly failing to properly test fly ash samples from the district’s waste-to-energy facility in Burnaby.

The district filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court on October 16. Covanta, according to the claim, operates the incinerator plant under contract with the district, and the facility generates fly ash which has to be treated before leaving the plant and tested monthly to ensure compliance with hazardous waste regulations.

Non-hazardous fly ash is taken and disposed of at the Cache Creek landfill, the claim says. Samples analyzed by Maxxam in the summer and fall of 2012, however, came back indicating high levels of cadmium that exceeded acceptable levels allowed for disposal at the landfill.

The results, the district claims, “called into question the effectiveness of the treatment of fly ash” at the facility, forcing the plaintiff to incur costs by requiring more sampling and testing, investigating the cause of the high cadmium levels and finding an alternate disposal site for fly ash in Alberta. After the Ministry of Environment hit the district with an advisory letter of non-compliance, the plaintiff hired “consultants, experts and legal counsel” to help investigate.

An audit of Maxxam’s laboratory found that it didn’t follow proper methods, called the “Toxic Characteristic Leaching Procedure” and the “United States Environmental Protection Agency Method 1311” to test the fly ash, according to the lawsuit. The Ministry of Environment’s assessment found Maxxam’s results unreliable due to improper testing procedures and found that “Covanta’s quality control and quality assurance protocols at the WTEF [Waste-to-Energy Facility] were not sufficiently developed to identify if leachability was occurring or if a problem with the treated fly ash and/or the treatment system was occurring,” the claim states. In addition, the ministry found that Covanta couldn’t easily “provide assurance that the treated fly ash met the hazardous waste requirements under the Hazardous Waste Regulation.”

The district seeks damages for negligence, misrepresentation, negligent performance of a service and breach of contract. The allegations have not been proven in court and the defendants hadn’t filed responses to the claim by press time.

by: http://prod-admin1.glacier.atex.cniweb.net:8080/preview/www/2.2551/2.2759/2.2742/1.1493460#

PESHAWAR:
Even with clear rules which state hospital waste must be incinerated within 24 hours of its collection, incinerators at two major hospitals in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) are out of order and the waste is dumped outside the hospitals.

According to data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 15 to 20 tons of hospital waste is generated daily in the provincial capital alone. Almost half of the total waste is recycled while the rest is collected by the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA).

LRH

“To be honest, we have one incinerator which is not in proper working condition and hardly disposes a quarter of the total waste generated,” said an official at Lady Reading Hospital while requesting anonymity. “But we have a new incinerator which will soon be functional.”

The official, who did not know the exact figure of the waste generated, said LRH has been among the well-equipped hospitals across the country. It has over 5,000 people (at least 3,000 in outpatient and 2,000 in accident and emergency departments) from across the province on a daily basis.

“The incinerator under process has some issues as a few of its parts are yet to be obtained,” said the official. “It also needs sufficient gas—another major problem—but we are in contact with Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL).”

The LRH official added the supply of gas to the hospital is not enough for sterilisation. He said the hospital administration is in contact with SNGPL authorities and the issue will soon be resolved.

HMC

Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) Chief Executive Dr Mumtaz Marwat said the incinerator at HMC is out of order but it does burn some waste. “The leftover is collected by the PDA and the hospital administration has approved Rs0.4million for a new incinerator, which will soon be installed.”

Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Chief Executive Dr Inayat Shah Roghani said the incinerator at KTH was working properly and recycles over 200 kilogrammes of waste per hour.

“Along with the solid waste generated by KTH, we also recycle waste that comes from a few private hospitals in University Town,” said Roghani.

The EPA has already sent a written notice to the health directorate, asking it to properly dispose of medical waste as mentioned under Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005. These say the responsibility of waste management lies solely with the institute that generated it.

What happens next

Even if the incinerators at these hospitals are repaired, the problem of unattended dump is likely to persist. This is mostly because of the small private health centres which lack the basic knowledge and dispose of their waste as ‘municipal waste’. The ever-increasing number of such centres is directly proportional to the waste generated, making it a threat for the environment as at times the waste is just left in a pile or buried to groundwater.