3 Ways to Effectively Manage Your Medical Waste

All of the items that are used in healthcare must be disposed of correctly in a way that is environmentally safe and also responsible. This includes syringes, needles, and expired pills.

There are a lot of used syringes, dirty needles, pharmaceutical waste such as expired or contaminated drugs, and even infectious waste such as blood, used dressings, bacterial cultures and wastes from accelerated clinical trials. Of course, all these things pose massive health and contamination risks and if they’re not disposed of properly, they can lead to even bigger health and environmental risks.

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Luckily, we have some information that will undoubtedly help you. Here are three effective ways to manage your medical waste.

1. Correct disposal

Correct disposal means everything when it comes to keeping our environment safe and healthy, which is our priority. Before items are disposed of, they must go through a thorough treatment process to minimise health threats and reduce damage to our environment.

The terms of treatment realistically depend on the facilities, but the most common terms of medical waste treatment are:

  • Steam sterilisation: A great decontamination method that is simple but highly effective. Pressurised steam operates at a high temperature and kills off microorganisms.
  • Mechanical treatment: Grinding/shredding.
  • Chemical treatment: The use of disinfectants.

It is of the utmost importance that all staff are educated on the significance of disposal of medical waste correctly.

2. Develop a plan

Developing a plan could be considered one of the most important things when it comes to the management of medical waste. Every great facility will have an effective and proper plan in place regarding the management of their medical waste. The responsibilities and roles of each member as well as the waste management plan should be laid out as soon as possible with hospitals and will usually be the first thing you learn.

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It is also of great importance that every staff member understands knows how much waste is generated and to what extent it does or does not fluctuate. It is up to the hospital to effectively teach this to their staff.

3. Introduce reusable items

Surprisingly, one of the worst ways to deal with waste items is to dispose of them. The most effective way to avoid waste is to not produce it in the first place. Understandably, waste is unavoidable in some circumstances, however, where possible it should be avoided.

A big way to make a change is to make the switch to reusable products where it is possible. Opting for greener alternatives could make the biggest difference to the environment and hospitals themselves. It is insanely easy to use reusable items in hospitals and it will be a godsend to the environment should hospitals consider reusable items.

In some cases, hospitals already use reusable products but for the sake of patient safety, some things just simply can’t be reusable. For example, any sharps containers and some specific medical instruments can actually be reusable! They will simply need to be sanitised and disinfected before/after each use and voila!

Before buying a product, it is always a good idea to check if it may be reusable. This will not only save money, but it will also save medical waste.

It is important to take care when disposing of your medical waste, see how to do it here.

What You Need to Know About Frequency-Generating Machines

While Dr. Raymond Rife claimed he didn’t want to have his name stamped on any machine, it would be disrespectful to completely neglect his influence in today’s frequency-generating machines. These are also called Rife Machines, but people are avoiding using his name as a sign of respect towards this marvelous scientist. Read more about him.

People who admire the work this scientist has done, instead of trying to earn a few bucks with the help of his name, know how important the discovery of this machine was. They also know that there have been some negative speculations in this regard, stemming from this misuse of this scientist’s name in the first place. Due to that, they choose not to attach his name to the modern machines created to at least replicate his.

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When you are looking to buy a device like this, however, it wouldn’t be fair for you not to know where and how it all started. Dr. Rife plays a big role in that, so we need to mention him and offer some insight into the devices that people call Rife Machines. In order to do that, we will have to take a little trip through history.

Dr. Rife and His Ray Tube System

In the 1930s, a man named Royal Raymond Rife, who was an American optics engineer, started voicing his research on electromagnetic waves. Optical magnifications he claimed to be achieving were said to be at least ten times more powerful than the ones achieved by the best microscope you can find on the market today. Imagine what that meant for everyone living in 1930s.

Despite the controversy behind many of his claims, his ray tube system was installed in numerous clinics and the results they were achieving seemed to be remarkable. After some time, though, many influential people turned against Dr. Rife and decided that his machine did more harm than good to patients, which is why the beam ray was banned from use.

Here’s more on the destiny of this genius: https://www.gaia.com/video/rise-and-fall-scientific-genius

It still remains unclear why this happened, but nobody can deny one thing. Dr. Rife set the foundation for significant medical research and today’s scientists are working hard to replicate this machine and make it a useful addition to healthcare systems. Let us now see how those work.

How Modern Frequency-Generating Machines Work

Frequency-generating machines produce low electromagnetic energy waves which bear a certain similarity to radio waves. They are also called radio frequency electromagnetic fields. Unlike X-rays and radio therapies, which use high energy waves, these are known for using low energy waves. This is a less common way of treatment, but some research exists and speaks in its favor.

In addition to that, new research is still being conducted, even though this idea was first introduced in the 1930s, as you were able to see above. Human health should never be taken lightly, which is probably why scientists aren’t giving up this idea, but they are approaching it cautiously, slowly and in a serious manner. It’s no wonder that they are treading this topic lightly, given the controversy that followed after the destiny of Dr. Rife.

Today’s frequency generators work on a simple principle, just like the ones that were introduced far back in time. Let me make it simple. Have you heard of the term sympathetic resonance? Let me explain it simply. If you have two similar objects and one of them starts to vibrate, the other one will replicate those movements and start vibrating as well, even though they are not touching each other.

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Due to that principle, it is believed that ultra-sounds can be used to stimulate organ function by vibration. That’s the whole philosophy behind these products, and while it is still unclear what kind of organ functions it is able to stimulate precisely, research is constantly progressing. In no time, we will know for sure what these generators can and cannot do.

One of today’s machines stemming from this research is called GB4000 MOPA and it prides itself in being a great replica of the machines used in 1930s. Unlike modern solid state circuit which uses low voltage and high current designs, MOPA oscillator/amplifier generates a high voltage, low current output, which allows it to light the plasma tube. Together with the GB4000 generator, this seems to be a really unique product. While working with frequency generating machines, it is also important to know how to select the perfect RF Amplifier

The reason I am mentioning this specific product is to inform you about the hard time people are having when it comes to choosing the right one. If you start researching frequency-generating machines, you will come across myriads of choices and some of them will have really great specifications. When you decide to buy one, make sure to learn as much as you can about it and compare it to its competitor models, in order to find the one that works best for you.

Who Uses These

Let us now get back to our general topic. These machines are used in an effort to stimulate the patients’ bodies to use sound waves, or bio-frequencies, in order to make chemical changes on its own. They are used by many medical practitioners, clinical and private researchers. The modern world offers many possibilities and if a product like this could be helpful to the human kind, scientists are bound to do research on it.

Given the breakthrough and the evidence we have gathered so far, people have started using these products outside hospitals and medical facilities. Deciding on getting one for yourself is a big step, and one that needs much consideration on your part. There are a lot of factors to take into account when buying this machine.

For starters, you will need to decide whether this product is going to be used only by you, or by multiple persons. In addition to that, you will need to think hard of when and where you will be using it and whether you will be travelling with it. Check the reputation of the company you are buying from and don’t make any rushed decisions.

Medical Waste Management in Developing Countries

Healthcare sector is growing at a very rapid pace, which in turn has led to tremendous increase in the quantity of medical waste generation in developing countries, especially by hospitals, clinics and other healthcare establishments. The quantity of healthcare waste produced in a typical developing country depends on a wide range of factors and may range from 0.5 to 2.5 kg per bed per day.

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For example, India generates as much as 500 tons of biomedical wastes every day while Saudi Arabia produces more than 80 tons of healthcare waste daily. The growing amount of medical wastes is posing significant public health and environmental challenges across the world. The situation is worsened by improper disposal methods, insufficient physical resources, and lack of research on medical waste management. The urgent need of the hour is to healthcare sustainable in the real sense of the word.

Hazards of Healthcare Wastes

The greatest risk to public health and environment is posed by infectious waste (or hazardous medical waste) which constitutes around 15 – 25 percent of total healthcare waste. Infectious wastes may include items that are contaminated with body fluids such as blood and blood products, used catheters and gloves, cultures and stocks of infectious agents, wound dressings, nappies, discarded diagnostic samples, swabs, bandages, disposal medical devices, contaminated laboratory animals etc.

Improper management of healthcare wastes from hospitals, clinics and other facilities in developing nations pose occupational and public health risks to patients, health workers, waste handlers, haulers and general public. It may also lead to contamination of air, water and soil which may affect all forms of life. In addition, if waste is not disposed of properly, ragpickers may collect disposable medical equipment (particularly syringes) and to resell these materials which may cause dangerous diseases.

In some countries, there may be legal remedies for such losses. For example, Floridians in the US can go to a medical malpractice lawyer in West Palm Beach. In others, especially developing countries, it may be harder to get compensated, and disease may be spread more easily as a result.

Inadequate healthcare waste management can cause environmental pollution, growth and multiplication of vectors like insects, rodents and worms and may lead to the transmission of dangerous diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis and AIDS through injuries from syringes and needles contaminated with human.

In addition to public health risks associated with poor management of biomedical waste, healthcare wastes can have deleterious impacts on water bodies, air, soil as well as biodiversity. The situation is further complicated by harsh climatic conditions in many developing nations which makes disposal of medical waste more challenging.

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The predominant medical waste management method in the developing world is either small-scale incineration or landfilling. However, the WHO policy paper of 2004 and the Stockholm Convention, has stressed the need to consider the risks associated with the incineration of healthcare waste in the form of particulate matter, heavy metals, acid gases, carbon monoxide, organic compounds, pathogens etc.

In addition, leachable organic compounds, like dioxins and heavy metals, are usually present in bottom ash residues. Due to these factors, many industrialized countries are phasing out healthcare incinerators and exploring technologies that do not produce any dioxins. Countries like United States, Ireland, Portugal, Canada and Germany have completely shut down or put a moratorium on medical waste incinerators.

Alternative Medical Waste Treatment Technologies

The alternative technologies for healthcare waste disposal are steam sterilization, advanced steam sterilization, microwave treatment, dry heat sterilization, alkaline hydrolysis, biological treatment and plasma gasification.

Steam sterilization is one of the most common alternative treatment method. Steam sterilization is done in closed chambers where both heat and pressure are applied over a period of time to destroy all microorganisms that may be present in healthcare waste before landfill disposal. Among alternative systems, autoclaving has the lowest capital costs and can be used to process up to 90% of medical waste, and are easily scaled to meet the needs of any medical organization.

Advanced autoclaves or advanced steam treatment technologies combine steam treatment with vacuuming, internal mixing or fragmentation, internal shredding, drying, and compaction thus leading to as much as 90% volume reduction. Advanced steam systems have higher capital costs than standard autoclaves of the same size. However, rigorous waste segregation is important in steam sterilization in order to exclude hazardous materials and chemicals from the waste stream.

Microwave treatment is a promising technology in which treatment occurs through the introduction of moist heat and steam generated by microwave energy. A typical microwave treatment system consists of a treatment chamber into which microwave energy is directed from a microwave generator. Microwave units generally have higher capital costs than autoclaves, and can be batch or semi-continuous.

Chemical processes use disinfectants, such as lime or peracetic acid, to treat waste. Alkaline hydrolysis is a unique type of chemical process that uses heated alkali to digest tissues, pathological waste, anatomical parts, or animal carcasses in heated stainless steel tanks. Biological processes, like composting and vermicomposting, can also be used to degrade organic matter in healthcare waste such as kitchen waste and placenta.

Plasma gasification is an emerging solution for sustainable management of healthcare waste. A plasma gasifier is an oxygen-starved reactor that is operated at the very high temperatures which results in the breakdown of wastes into hydrogen, carbon monoxide, water etc. The main product of a plasma gasification plant is energy-rich syngas which can be converted into heat, electricity and liquids fuels. Inorganic components in medical wastes, like metals and glass, get converted into a glassy aggregate.