النفايات الطبية واثارها البيئية في مدينة السماوة

Rp-Medical Waste and its Environmental Empacts in the City Of Samawah .pdf

Abstract
This study was made in order to identify medical waste in general , And learn about the nature of its geographical distribution in the city of Samawah As well as emphasizing the danger of medical waste and its environmental impacts in the city of Samawah The problem of medical waste may represent one of the environmental problems that countries of the world are currently giving increasing attention to This is due to the harmful environmental effects of vital systems, the general health of people, and the distortion of the urban landscape of cities , It also constitutes an economic burden on governments that could have been avoided or allocated in other areas , Therefore, the study addressed to assess the size of the environmental impacts of medical waste and its implications for public health in the city of Samawah due to the exacerbation of its quantities and diversity as a result of the increase in the population of the study area, the increase in their standard of living and the diversity of human activities in it such as (industrial, agricultural, commercial, etc.) The disposal of medical waste has also become one of the most prominent problems facing the study area , as the city constitutes an area (6612Km), inhabited by (221743 people), distributed over (32) residential neighborhoods, and divided into (h) sectors. The study aims to reveal the size of The studied problem and awareness of its environmental risk , It follows the behavior of the residents of the study area in dealing with medical waste, starting from its generation and ending with the mechanism of its disposal, in addition to knowing its quantities, sources of handling, and its spatial and temporal variation, to determine the means to dispose of it without harming the environment.
One of the most important findings of the study mechanism is that health institutions in the city of Samawah suffer from mismanagement of medical waste, as medical waste management is not dependent on the steps taken by the World Health Organization for the correct management of medical waste , As health institutions work to mix between normal and hazardous medical waste, and thus lead to an increase in the quantities of hazardous medical waste, and the methods used to dispose of medical waste are inefficient to treat them, most notably incineration with medical incineration In addition, there are no private landfills for medical waste, as the medical waste dumping process is carried out with solid waste landfills. For primary health care, and a public health laboratory The number of health institutions studied reached (27) health institutions, amounting to (3) hospitals, (5) specialized centers, (14) primary health care centers, (4) laboratories, and a public health laboratory .
Governmental hospital came with the largest percentage of medical waste generation, as it surpassed other health institutions, as medical waste in hospitals in 2020 reached (191,568) kg , As for other health institutions, the total of medical waste was (17,290) kg, and the percentage of infectious waste was (60%) and sharps waste (40%) , It was found through these ratios that weights of medical waste in hospitals are more than weights of medical waste in other health institutions, and this is due to the large capacity of hospitals .
The study showed the role of natural and human factors that contributed to the variation of medical waste in the city of Samawah and how it works to manage that waste and the extent of its impact on its spatial variation and its implications Among the most prominent natural and human factors that affected medical waste and its effects are the climate, the nature of the population, their number, the difference in their distribution, and the nature of the diseases they contract, and it has been shown that there is a significant correlation between increasing the percentage of pollutants from one season to another.
Among the most prominent effects of medical waste that appeared in the study area is visual pollution inside and outside health institutions as a result of throwing medical waste untreated, as well as the presence of many diseases such as viral hepatitis, as well as contamination of health institutions And wastewater, where there are no wastewater treatment devices, as it is thrown directly without being treated, and most of the chemical elements in it and in wastewater are high, especially chlorides, calcium, nickel and cadmium, As well as the high emission rates of gases and heavy elements from medical incinerators and the sanitary landfill site, especially, sass, copper, zinc and nickel from heavy elements, as well as high levels of suspended particles.