THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT: A study of Selected Medical Facilities in Ile Ife, Osun State

Abstract

In pursuing their aims of providing treatment and safeguarding the health of the people against illnesses, health-care services inevitably create waste that is hazardous to health and whose management has remained a great challenge due to its highly toxic contents. This paper examines the practice of biomedical waste management in some medical facilities in Ile-Ife with a view to determining the risks associated with the practice. Four medical facilities with some level of sophistication in waste management were purposively selected for study. The type of waste generated was determined by sorting of waste while handheld scale was used to determine the volume of waste generated. Questionnaire was used to obtain information from the waste management and medical staff of the selected medical facilities. Descriptive (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (Multinomial logistic regression) were used in analysing the data. The study established that the daily per capita waste generation in the medical facilities was 0.51kg. Scrap (Syringes and absorbent paper) (96.7%), infectious (Excreta and dressing swabs) (72.9%) and pathological wastes (Human tissue and body fluid) (57.0%)were the most generated waste while open dumping and pit burial of waste were widely practiced among the medical facilities. Exposure to harmful chemical and radioactive waste (68.8%)and injuries from sharps (52.3%)pose serious health risks not only to the waste managers but health care workers. The paper holds that solutions to the challenges of biomedical waste management practices lie in strict adherence to the global best practices as recommended by the World Health Organisation.

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Keywords

Biomedical Waste;, Medical Facilities;, Incineration, Radioactive Waste, Infections

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