What different wastes are produced in hospitals?

উত্তরঃ Hospital waste (biomedical waste) is broadly categorized into general non-hazardous waste and various forms of hazardous waste, including infectious, pathological, sharps, chemical, pharmaceutical, radioactive, and cytotoxic wastes.

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Hospitals generate a wide range of waste materials during diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, and laboratory procedures. The World Health Organization (WHO) and standard medical waste management frameworks classify hospital waste into the following main types:

  
• General (Non-Hazardous) Waste: Comprises about 75% to 90% of all healthcare waste. It includes non-contaminated materials similar to household waste, such as paper, cardboard, packaging, food scraps, and clean plastic bottles.
  
• Infectious Waste: Waste contaminated with blood, body fluids, or pathogens. Examples include used gauze, bandages, surgical gloves, culture dishes, and disposable diagnostic kits.
  
• Pathological Waste: Human tissue, organs, body fluids, anatomical parts, fetuses, and blood bags resulting from surgery, autopsy, or medical procedures.
  
• Sharps Waste: Objects capable of puncturing or cutting the skin, such as hypodermic needles, intravenous sets, scalpels, lancets, blades, and broken glass vials.
  
• Pharmaceutical Waste: Expired, unused, contaminated, or discarded drugs, vaccines, intravenous fluids, and antibiotic solutions.
  
• Chemical Waste: Hazardous liquid or solid chemical substances used in cleaning, disinfection, or laboratory diagnostics, such as formaldehyde, solvents, disinfectants, and heavy metals (e.g., mercury from broken thermometers and blood pressure cuffs).
  
• Cytotoxic / Genotoxic Waste: Highly dangerous waste containing substances with toxic effects, primarily cancer chemotherapy drugs and contaminated equipment used in their preparation and administration.
  
• Radioactive Waste: Waste generated from diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures, containing radioactive materials such as cobalt, technetium, or iodine isotopes.