Abstract
A large amount of medical waste is produced during disaster relief, posing a potential hazard to the habitat and the environment. A comprehensive understanding of the composition and characteristics of medical waste that requires management is one of the most basic steps in the development of a plan for medical waste management. Unfortunately, limited reliable information is available in the open literature on the characteristics of the medical waste that is generated at disaster relief sites. This paper discusses the analysis of the composition and characteristics of medical waste at a disaster relief site using the retrospection-simulation-revision method. For this study, we obtained 35 medical relief records of the Wenchuan Earthquake, Sichuan, May 2008 from a field cabin hospital. We first present a retrospective analysis of the relief medical records, and then, we simulate the medical waste generated in the affected areas. We ultimately determine the composition and characteristics of medical waste in the affected areas using untreated medical waste to revise the composition of the simulated medical waste. The results from 35 cases showed that the medical waste generated from disaster relief consists of the following: plastic (43.2%), biomass (26.3%), synthetic fiber (15.3%), rubber (6.6%), liquid (6.6%), inorganic salts (0.3%) and metals (1.7%). The bulk density of medical relief waste is 249 kg/m3, and the moisture content is 44.75%. The data should be provided to assist the collection, segregation, storage, transportation, disposal and contamination control of medical waste in affected areas. In this paper, we wish to introduce this research method of restoring the medical waste generated in disaster relief to readers and researchers. In addition, we hope more disaster relief agencies will become aware of the significance of medical case recording and storing. This may be very important for the environmental evaluation of medical waste in disaster areas, as well as for medical waste management and disposal.
Highlights
Geological disasters have frequently occurred all over the world in recent years
The RSR approach proceeds as follows: (i) conduct a retrospective analysis of disaster relief information. This step includes calculating the medical supplies used by the medical relief unit according to the raw medical records. (ii) According to the medical supply data, create the simulated medical waste (SMW), which is similar to that at the disaster relief site. (iii) Analyze the injury types of the medical relief cases in stricken areas and collect the untreated medical waste (UMW) produced by similar cases generated from base hospitals. (iv) Determine the composition and characteristics of medical waste in stricken areas using the composition and characteristics of UMW to revise those of SMW
In accordance with the season of the earthquake, this study considered well-directed UMW generated from similar cases in the operating rooms and emergency rooms of the 255th hospital during May and June of 2015
Summary
Geological disasters have frequently occurred all over the world in recent years. Handling medical waste generated from medical aid units under disaster emergency relief conditions has become one of the most heavily researched areas of international science, technology and environmental protection [1]. The analysis of the composition and characteristics of medical waste in earthquake-stricken areas has not been reported in the literature to date. This paper discusses the analysis of the composition and properties of medical waste at a disaster relief site using the retrospection-simulation-revision (RSR) method. The RSR approach proceeds as follows: (i) conduct a retrospective analysis of disaster relief information. This step includes calculating the medical supplies used by the medical relief unit according to the raw medical records. (ii) According to the medical supply data, create the simulated medical waste (SMW), which is similar to that at the disaster relief site.
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