LAUSR

Dear Editor, At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) appeared in the city of Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially labelled the illness caused by the novel virus as ‘COVID-19’, which stands for ‘Corona Virus Disease 2019’. Since April 2019, the world-wide outbreak of COVID-19 has been considered a pandemic by the WHO. In response, many countries have imposed lock-downs on their populations, closing schools, businesses, transportation networks, etc., and encouraging people to ‘stay home’ as much as possible. At the same time, numerous sectors have been affected by government-imposed rules to reduce the impact and spread of COVID-19. Among the affected sectors are municipal solid wastes and hospital wastes. For these sectors, the quantity of solid wastes has significantly increased, as hospitals are an important source of solid waste generation. Since the start of the pandemic, many patients have been visiting their local hospitals each day. Because of the increase in patient load, hospital laboratories are receiving more samples than usual for analysis. The vials and testing equipment used in the testing protocol, along with the sample residues, are considered hospital waste. In Wuhan, for example, which is the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, the quantity of hospital waste jumped from 50 tons per day to approximately 250 tons per day during the peak of the pandemic period. Elsewhere in Asia, the daily quantity of medical wastes in cities such as Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi and Bangkok experienced similar increases, producing 154 to 280 tons more medical waste per day than before the pandemic. China alone recorded a national medical waste disposal level of 6067 tons per day during February and March 2020, which was an increase of 1164 tons per day compared to January. In general, the medical sector generates copious amounts of different kinds of wastes. The main items are discarded surgical gloves, surgical instruments, needles used to give shots or draw blood, masks, sanitizers, disinfectants, gowns, eye protectors (goggles or face shields), other personal protection equipment and medications. Medical wastes are classified as hazardous wastes on the basis of their biological, chemical and physical properties. These materials are either toxic, reactive, ignitable, corrosive, infectious or radioactive, which means they should be stored in a safe place before being moved to their final waste-treatment location for disposal. The hazard associated with a waste depends on its composition, physical form and chemical, physical and biological properties. The location of waste storage areas within healthcare premises must be properly determined and sized, and medical wastes must be properly disposed. As mentioned above, medical wastes are classified as hazardous and are not usually transported for final disposal on a daily basis. Instead, each hospital has a ‘temporary storage’ time period for these materials, which differs from one country to another. In Europe, for instance, temporary storage varies from 28 to 90 days, while in the United States, temporary storage may last up to 90 days for large quantity generators and 180 days for small ones. In Eastern Europe and Africa, temporary storage of hazardous wastes may be indefinite.