Policies and Legislative Framework for Biomedical Waste Management

Abstract

Medical waste is created in hospitals, laboratories, and other healthcare facilities due to the diagnosis and treatment of patients. Despite being a place for patients, hospitals are also responsible for producing waste products that can have adverse effects on the environment and people. Hospital waste management can pose potential risks to human's health by causing infections, such as cancer, liver disease, and other diseases. The wastes are highly toxic and can pose serious health risks and environmental concerns. Proper handling and treatment of these wastes require both regulatory and formal structure. A number of Lawful Regulations were adopted both locally and globally, in accordance with this requirement. The Legal structure is being increasingly examined for their potential risks of improper disposal. The current laws governing medical waste management and the legal structures that have been developed to achieve this goal is the focus of this chapter. Furthermore, medical waste management should be addressed through the development of unsegregated policies and organization for managing waste, grouping, segregation, reusing, wrapping, tagging, treatment, and discarding of biomedical wastes.