Essay Sample on Medical Wastes

Introduction

Management and disposal of waste products is the major challenge when it comes to a matter relating to environmental cleanliness and sustainability. In most cases, diseases outbreak emerges as a result of improper ways of garbage and waste management. Medical waste can be classified as waste products that contain potentially infectious material that affects human health through pollution of the natural environment (Windfeld, & Brooks,2015). The material had medical origins such as infusion kits and material used for packaging.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Sources and Causes of Medical Wastes

Several types and forms of medical waste cause environmental pollution and jeopardize health condition and productivity of nature to support human and living organisms. Some of the medical wastes that an individual is likely to come across at most garbage sites, roadsides, and at residential areas are, Radioactive, Pathological, Genotoxic, Pharmaceutical, Sharps, Chemicals Infectious, chemical, and some of the non-hazardous material wastes. These medical waste substances are usually disposed of by medical professionals such as vets, dentists, and physicians after service provisions (Komilis et.al.,2017). Besides, healthcare facilities, funeral homes, retail health, and residential home care are a significant source of medical waste. People should note that sources of medical waste are diverse sources. Therefore, it causes different impacts and affects human health and making it challenging to protect the natural environment. Currently, human uses medical products in all aspects of life either through industrial and agricultural productions or for personal use.

For instance, dental and experimental by-products produced by the dentist and medical physicians can pose a severe threat to environmental system impacts and act as predisposing factors for human disease and body injuries. Besides, these materials, such as mercury amalgams and other solvents, are toxic and thus cause a threat to young children and animals. When most of these substances infiltrate into the soil, it kills soil microorganisms that play a critical role in decomposition. When they are killed, it destroys the ecological food chain and food web system. Besides, it makes some microorganisms causing bacteria and viruses to develop resistance against chemicals, making it challenging to control.

Effects and Impacts of Medical Wastes

Medical waste is hazardous to both humans and the environment, as stated earlier. Some of the results and impacts are irreversible and thus have lifetime impacts on the life of the victim and affected natural environmental aspects and element. When sharp infected products from health medical facilities interact with health person by causing injuries, they lead to infection and transmit disease such as HIV/Aids that has no cure, thus cause lifetime effects. The affected person is subjected to other forms of contamination.

Parasitic and virus infections and blood poisoning are also significant impacts and effects of medical wastes (Awodele et.al.,2016). As stated earlier, medical wastes released from research and laboratories are always contaminated, and when an individual comes into contact with these substances, they got infected and contract disease infections. Blood poisoning or bacteremia leads to severe blood infections leading to human health complications as a result of coming in contact with contaminated surfaces. Sometimes bacterial infections cause most life-threatening sepsis.

According to Adeoye et al., (2018), medical wastes not only poses severe and compromising health conditions to people, but it also causes severe infection and impacts to a living organism with the ecosystem if the products are not correctly handled. When an animal consumes most of these medical products and gets infected, they transmit the infection to man since most people use animal products such as meat, milk, honey, eggs, and others.

For example, based on COVID-19 pandemics that are currently global threat that has halted economic activities and is most likely to cause a significant global recession, if the medical products, not products not disposed of properly, it transmits COVID-19 to animals and man. When such conditions happen, regardless of global efforts to end the pandemics, it will not happen. Therefore, it calls for the need of proper disposal strategies and regulations that govern management medical garbage and waste products.

There are several ways under which medical waste problem can be solved(Rani,2019). For instance, people should avoidance coming into conduct with medical waste to prevent infections and injuries. By doing, it also helps to reduce transmission of bacteria and infectious viruses such as COVID-19 that is currently affecting the global economy as a result of the loss of human resource and measures taken to combat the virus. It is an effective way of reducing the problems associated with medical waste by simply avoiding its production. The government should set regulation and policy that fights the hostile impacts of hazardous medical wastes. The government sets strict rules on how waste disposal has to carry out. It is essential to work together and share current information about medical waste treatment and disposal. Besides, the medical professional and concerned institution should take precautions before deposing medical wastes to protect and prevent environmental pollutions and contaminations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, medical wastes originate from several sources and lead to severe human health complications as a result of being able to contaminate most of the products and surfaces used by humans. It causes environmental pollutions making animal and human habitation risk. Therefore, it is critical to treat and dispose of medical wastes properly.

References

Adeoye, A. O., Akande, E. A., & Lateef, A. (2018). Impacts of hospital waste management on the health and environment of Ogbomosho area, Oyo state. Hos Pal Med Int Jnl, 2(6), 386-389. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adekunle_Adeoye3/publication/330756214_Impacts_of_hospital_waste_management_on_the_health_and_environment_of_Ogbomoso_area_Oyo_state/links/5d978ab692851c2f70eb8d50/Impacts-of-hospital-waste-management-on-the-health-and-environment-of-Ogbomoso-area-Oyo-state.pdf

Awodele, O., Adewoye, A. A., & Oparah, A. C. (2016). Assessment of medical waste management in seven hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. BMC public health, 16(1), 269. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-2916-1

Komilis, D., Makroleivaditis, N., & Nikolakopoulou, E. (2017). Generation and composition of medical wastes from private medical microbiology laboratories. Waste management, 61, 539-546. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X17300302

Rani, P. (2019). Managing biomedical waste using barcode system. Editorial Board, 8(8), 65. http://www.academia.edu/download/61367333/IJMER_volume8-issue85-201920191128-72574-1gjzsq.pdf#page=73

Windfeld, E. S., & Brooks, M. S. L. (2015). Medical waste management-A review. Journal of environmental management, 163, 98-108. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479715302176