Bio Medical Waste Management- 'An Emerging Problem'

A B S T R A C T As per Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 and amendments, any waste, which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining there to or in the production of testing of biological and including categories mentioned in schedule 1 of the Rule, is the bio-medical waste The private sector accounts for more than 80% of total healthcare spending in India. Unless there is a decline in the combined federal and state government deficit, which currently stands at roughly 9%, the opportunity for significantly higher public health spending will be limited. The growth of this sector has not only increased the quality of patient care but also put a tremendous strain on the environment due to generation of huge amounts of Bio-Medical waste. It is estimated that quantity of waste generated from hospitals in our country ranges from 0.5-2 kg/bed/day and annually 0.33 million tons of waste is generated in India (2) . The waste generated in the hospitals and institutions essentially consists of solids and liquid, which may be hazardous, infectious and non-infectious. According to a WHO report, around 85% of the hospital wastes are actually non- hazardous, 10% are infectious and 5% are non-infectious but hazardous.