النفايات الطبية وآثارها البيئية في مدينة كربلاء

Medical Waste and its Effect in Karbala City

   This study was to identify the medical waste in general and to know the nature of their geographical distribution in Karbala city in addition to emphasizing on the gravity and effects of the medical and environmental waste.
The most important findings of study are that The health institutions in Karbala city suffer from poor management of medical waste because they do not follow what came out by the world health organization of the proper steps management. There is a mix between normal and dangerous medical waste which leads for increasing of the quantity of dangerous waste and the use of non-efficient ways for processing them including is the burning of medical incinerators in addition to the lack of special medical waste landfill . The weights of medical waste was studies in (27) health institutions including (6) hospitals , (16) health center,(3) specialized centers, one main lab and a major one blood bank. The government and civil hospitals are considered to be the biggest sources for producing the medical waste which has overtaken on the other health institution, in hospitals the medical waste reached (172.581kg) in 2014, in the rate of (92.20%) of the total medical waste rations studied by the health institution. The total waste of other health institution is (14.397kg) per (7.6%), which means that there is a huge difference between the hospitals and other health institutions. This belong is to the capacity of the hospitals and the variety of their specialties.
The weights of producing medical waste may differ from one city sector to another (al-haidariya, The old city, Al-jazeera), that is led to the appearance of three regions for distribution the density of medical waste. The first is the region of high-density which appears in al- haidariya sector in the rate of (93%) of the medical waste , the second is region of medium-density that appears in old city sector in the rate of (5.6%), while the third one is the low-density region which showed in Al-Gazeera sector in the rate of (1.4%). Concerning the disparity of time for medical waste that was confined its study on hospitals , there is a difference in the production rates of medical waste between the years 2010 and 2014 AD. In 2010 the average reached to (148.786kg), whereas in 2014 reached to (122.581kg) .
The most obvious human and natural factors which contributes to the appearance of regions of medical waste were climate , the distribution numbers and the verity diseases types of populations. However there is a strong direct correlation between the numbers of sick people with verity diseases who visit the hospital and the medical waste for all medical institutions in AL-Haidariyah sector.         The correlation factor in this sector is (0.984**) , while the old city sector came with (0.984*), and in AL-Jazeera sector the correlation factor was (0,787). The correlation rate between climate diseases and the medical waste in old city sector was direct in the rate of (0,277), whereas there was a reverse correlation in AL-Haidariyah sector with(0.365_). In AL-Jazeera sector a strong direct correlation reached to (0.6320). The visual pollution is most prominent effect of medical waste that appeared in the area of the study which results frome throwing the medical waste without treatment, as well as incidences of diseases, hepatitis, and respiratory diseases, etc., furthermore there is the pollution of soil of health institutions and water wells near imbedding site with coliform bacteria the pathogens , increasing the rates for the most of chemical elements in it and in wastewater especially sodium, chlorides, nickel and cadmium, rising the rates of gas emission, the high rates of gas emissions and heavy metals from medical incinerators and landfill site, particularly CO and NO2 gases, lead, copper, nickel and zinc from heavy elements in addition to lingering dust.