To understand the significant role of a medical waste disposal company, we must pay attention to that facts about hazardous pharmaceutical waste.
An estimated 16 million injections are administered around the world annually. That’s not so disturbing, but what about those needles? Did you know that many of those dirty syringes are improperly disposed of? Medical waste disposal is so important, but proper handling techniques are often ignored or overlooked.
The Medical Waste Problem, and How it Could Affect You…
The Word Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that in the year 2000, contaminated syringes caused 21 million people to become infected with HBV infections. If the syringes had been disposed of safely, using proper medical waste removal practices, the infections could have been avoided altogether.
Stricter Rules for Medical Waste Disposal…It Just Makes Sense!
With two million tons of medical waste being generated every year, it’s clear that companies producing such waste should have stricter guidelines and tighter enforcement of the rules to ensure that medical waste does not harm or pose health risks to the population. Among the most common sources of pharmaceutical waste are doctor’s offices, dental practices, veterinary clinics, and research facilities.
Other Facts About Medical Waste Disposal
Pharmaceuticals and chemicals comprise approximately 3% of waste from health-care activities. Geneotoxic waste, radioactive matter and heavy metal content make up around 1% of the total waste from health care.
The Importance of Employing a Good Medical Waste Disposal Company
Approximately 1% of the total waste is sharps waste (needles and syringes), but as a major source of disease transmission, it’s imperative it be properly managed and disposed of, along with other hazardous pharmaceutical waste and trace chemo waste.
Although as much as 80% of hospital wastes could be disposed of like ordinary garbage, the remaining one-fifth left (400,000 tons annually)should be handled with caution. For these reasons and more, a medical waste disposal company has a great job to do for the safety of health care workers, patients, waste disposal professionals, and the general public too. Staying safe means paying attention, and keeping medical waste companies in fully operational. Somebody’s got to do the dirty work!