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• Health care waste refers to all solid or liquid wastes generated by diagnosis, treatment, immunization of humans, research pertaining to diagnosis, treatment, and immunization of humans, research using laboratory animals geared towards improvement of human health, production and testing of biological products, and other activities performed by a health care facility that generate wastes.
• Health care waste generators include health care facilities and other spaces where health care services are offered with activities that generate wastes such as hospitals and medical centers, infirmaries, birthing homes, clinics and other health-related facilities, laboratories and research centers, drug manufacturers, institutions, and mortuary and autopsy centers.
• Estimated 16 billion injections are administered worldwide, but not all of the needles and syringes are properly disposed of afterwards.
• Only Health Care Waste that are properly treated can be mixed with general waste provided that it is certified with DOH that the organism in the waste products are inert and cannot regenerate.
• Landfill is an engineered site (with secured proper permits from DENR) designed to keep waste isolated from the environment.
• Safe Burial as a disposal method is only applicable to treated infectious wastes, sharps, pathological and anatomical wastes, small quantities of encapsulated/ inertisized solid chemical and pharmaceutical waste and only allowed in health care facilities located in a remote area.
• Encapsulation is the process of filling a container with waste, adding and immobilizing material, and sealing to reduce the risk of scavengers gaining access to the hazardous healthcare wastes.
• Inertization is the process of mixing waste with cement, lime, and water to minimize the risk of toxic substances contained in waste migrating into surface water or groundwater.
• The resulting by-product from health care waste is put through an extruder to remove water for wastewater disposal.
• According to a joint assessment of the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – over half (58%) of the 24 countries had adequate systems for healthcare waste disposal.
• According to WHO – 75-90% of wastes are non-hazardous, 10-25% of wastes are hazardous and may be infectious, toxic, or radioactive.
• Chemical methods of sterilization include filtration, ionizing (gamma) radiation, ethylene glycol (ETO), formaldehyde vapor and vapor phase hydrogen peroxide.
• Sterilization is a process whereby all forms of microbial life including bacterial spores, are killed.
• Sterilization may be accomplished by physical or chemical means.
• Decontamination is the removal of pathogenic microorganisms so items are safe to handle or dispose of.
• Chemical methods of disinfection include alcohol, formalin, glutaraldehyde, halogens, hydrogen peroxide, phenolics, and quaternary ammonium compounds.
• Disinfection is a process whereby pathogenic organisms, but not necessarily all microorganisms or spores, are destroyed.
• Disinfection may be accomplished by physical or chemical means.
• Physical methods of sterilization include incineration, autoclave (moist heat), and oven (dry heat).
• Physical methods of disinfection include boiling, pasteurization, and non-ionizing radiation.
• High-income countries generate 0.5 kg of hazardous waste/hospital bed/day, while low-income countries generate 0.2 kg of hazardous waste/hospital bed/day.
• Categories of health care waste include Non-hazardous or General Waste, Infectious, Pathological and Anatomical Waste, Sharps, Chemical Waste, Pharmaceutical Waste, Radioactive Waste, and Genotoxic Wastes.
• Republic Act No. 9275, “The Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004”, emphasizes the importance of clean water and sanitation.
• End of Pipe is implemented when wastes are not safe for reuse, recycle, or recovery.
• Reusing refers to either finding a new application for a used material or using the same product for the same application repeatedly.
• Presidential Decree No. 856, “The Code on Sanitation of the Philippines – Chapter XVII on Sewage Collection and Excreta Disposal” (1998), outlines the healthcare waste management system.
• The Green Procurement Policy involves two aspects: Waste Prevention and Waste Reduction.
• Health care facilities are encouraged to avail of services that are least harmful to the environment and to purchase less polluting products.
• Recycling refers to the processing of used materials into new products.
• The effective management of health care wastes considers the basic elements of waste minimization, identification, and segregation.
• Republic Act No. 8749, “The Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999”, prohibits the incineration of bio-medical wastes effective July 17, 2003.
• “An Act to Control Substances and Hazardous Nuclear Wastes of 1990” provides policies and guidelines on effective and proper handling, collection, transport, storage, and disposal of healthcare wastes.
• Recovery of waste is defined in two ways: energy recovery, whereby waste is converted to fuel for generating electricity or for direct heating of premises, and as a term used to encompass three subsets of waste recovery: recycling, composting, and energy recovery.
• Healthcare facilities are tasked to ensure that generated wastes are properly and safely managed; wastes must be segregated, collected, stored, and transported.
• The End of Pipe involves two aspects: Treatment, the process of changing the biological and chemical characteristics of waste to minimize its potential to cause harm, and Disposal, the discharging, placing or releasing any health care waste into air, land, or water.
• Chemical waste is segregated in a bin labelled “Chemical Waste”; for liquid chemical waste, inside the bin is a disposal bottle made of amber-colored glass with at least 4 liter-capacity that is strong, chemical resistant, and leak-proof.
• Pathological and Anatomical waste is segregated in a strong leak-proof bin with a cover labelled “Pathological/Anatomical” with a biohazard symbol.
• Non-hazardous waste is waste that has not been in contact with communicable or infectious agents, hazardous, chemicals, or radioactive materials and comes mostly from the administrative and housekeeping functions of health care establishments.
• • Decontamination is the process that removes or reduces the microbial contamination to acceptable levels.
• Dental waste is segregated in a bin with symbols used by DENR Environmental Management Bureau together with other universally accepted hazard symbols.