إدارة و معالجة النفايات الصلبة في بعض مستشفيات مدينة بغداد

الملخص EN

Hospital solid waste management is one of the most neglected parts of the managerial process in Baghdad.

This research has been done to evaluate the actual state of this system in some hospitals in Baghdad as a case study and to find out the quality and quantity of their waste as well as to find the possible solutions which can be done to develop this system.

The present research coveres some of the official hospitals which are different in specialties and in bed capacities.

Samples of solid waste were taken for seven months (from 1stDecember 2003 to 30thJune 2004) and we analyzed their generation rates (kg/bed/day) which were classified into range (0.32–1.6).

These waste were classified into two major categories, medical and general waste and other samples were taken and analyzed for their moisture content and density which were (21%, 219.56 kg/m3) respectively for medical waste and (48%, 298 kg / m3 ) respectively for general waste .

The factors that had affected the generation rate of solid waste were hospital specialty, number of beds, number of patients in a day, number of operations in a day and number of employees in hospital.

These factors were analyzed statistically to get a mathematical formula to estimate the generation rate of waste .

Field work illustrates the unhygienic methods which were used to collect, store, transport these wastes and their bad treatment by burning them in an inefficient incinerator.

On the other hand the results of the laboratory tests for (20) samples of ash which were collected from these incinerators show that they contain high concentrations of heavy metals like (Pb,Cd,CAr) which were found at range (55.3-98.3) mg/l of Pb, (4.3-8.75) m/l of (Cd) and (45.5-75.5) mg/l of Cr.

In comparison with the Environmental Protection Agency standerds, these samples hold levels which are (5,1, 5) mg/l higher than the respective sample.

This indicates that the ash has been considered as the hazardous waste which can pollute ground water if it is land-disposed in unsuitable sites.

This research shows that the design of hospital solid waste management requires a systematic approach,covering the handling, storage, transport, treatment and disposal of waste by methods which minimize the risk of public health and the environment, so that the treatment of medical waste in a central incinerator in one of these hospitals appears to be the best option .