Case Study: Improper Health Care Waste Management

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3. Contributors to improper health care waste management
Results from this section have been grouped according to the major role players who participate in the management of health care waste.

3.1. The health care waste disposal industry

“Because so much is wrong with the industry, it allows unscrupulous people to exploit the shortcuts and loopholes”, (Sunday Tribune, 2010, p. 15).

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism director general was quoted in a news story admitting that the industry is in crisis and that what is most alarming is that they do not know what is causing the problem. Issues within the health care waste disposal industry reported in news stories include what follows. Health care waste disposal companies do …show more content…

12).

On top of the shortage of health care disposal facilities, is the lack of finances and skills in the industry to obtain more incinerators or other forms of disposal.

“… the limited number of health care waste disposal facilities and the resultant high cost of treatment and disposal had contributed to the illegal dumping of medical waste on municipal landfills and open space”, (Daily News, 2012, p. …show more content…

Only one news story mentioned the issue of aesthetics describing a pile of illegally dumped health care waste as an eyesore. Smells of illegally dumped waste are described as unbearable. Smell was most often reported as an alert to illegally dumped health care waste, as well as what spurs resident action. Environmental conservation is a concern of improperly operating incinerators and the stockpiling of health care risk waste. Improperly operating incinerators are reported to result in air pollution; and the stockpiling of health care risk waste is reported as a concern of polluting groundwater systems through the leakage of waste material into the ground.

B) Solutions to problems related to health care waste
1. Proposed solutions
Proposed solutions in news stories included the need for government policy and regulation; the use of new technology; training of hospital staff and the creation of specific health care waste agencies; and the development of health care waste management strategy documents.

“Yet, we can only plead with all responsible people in our city to the right thing and respect the health of others. This call extends to all medical practitioners, medical institutions and their service providers always to act responsibly with dangerous waste”, (The Herald, 2004, p.

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