Comparative life cycle assessment of emergency disposal scenarios for medical waste during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

The COVID-19 pandemic attracts concerns globally and leads to an exponential increase in medical waste generation, and disposal of medical waste is an urgent need for preventing the epidemic spread. Emergency disposal scenarios of medical waste generated during the COVID-19 pandemic require a systematic assessment to quantify their potential environmental impacts. The environmental impacts and key factors of three movable disposal scenarios (i.e. incineration disposal vehicle, movable steam and microwave sterilization equipment both followed by co-incineration with municipal solid waste) were quantified via life cycle assessment approach. Furthermore, the environmental impacts of three movable disposal and two co-incineration scenarios were compared via life cycle assessment by expanding system boundaries. The results show that co-incineration with municipal solid waste has the lowest environmental impacts due to environmental benefits produced by power generation, while co-incineration with hazardous waste is the highest due to the high energy consumption. Energy consumption (i.e. kerosene, electricity and diesel) are the key factors for three movable disposal scenarios. For movable steam and microwave sterilization equipment followed by co-incineration with municipal solid waste, power generation from incinerating disinfected medical waste has significant beneficial environmental impacts due to avoided impacts of electricity consumption. The recommendations for improvement of the emergency disposal and management of medical waste during the COVID-19 pandemic globally and other serious epidemic in the future are provided.

A reverse supply chain for medical waste: A case study in Babol healthcare sector

Medical waste generation is rapidly rising, which may cause a serious risk for both humans and environment if it is not properly managed. Designing an efficient and reliable medical waste reverse supply chain (MWRSC) is extremely beneficial to society. Most studies on this issue have only considered the generated waste and have not reported the uncertainty in the amount of medical waste generation and other MWRSC parameters. Sustainability criteria and environmental issues in choosing treatment technology are rarely considered as well. In this research, a linear programming model under uncertainty is developed to design an MWRSC. The proposed model is multi-item and multi-period with three objective functions. The first objective function minimizes total costs, the second objective function is relevant to the best treatment technology selection and the third objective function minimizes the total medical waste stored. A robust possibilistic programming approach is utilized to handle imprecise parameters in the model and a fuzzy goal programming method is employed to build up a multi-objective model. A real case study is conducted to illustrate the potential of the proposed model which involves different attributes and problems, such as the location and capacity of facilities, and the type of treatment technology. Furthermore, the transferring amount of medical waste among different nodes is calculated.

Prognosis? Misdiagnosis! The High Price of Getting It Wrong

By some counts misdiagnosis leads to up to 80,000 hospital deaths each year-and results in billions in wasted medical spending. Lack of feedback and miscommunication are among the causes. Researchers, advocates, and others are pushing for changes and "diagnostic excellence."

Use Incentive Approach to Promote BAT/BEP for Centralized Incineration Facilities of Medical Waste in China

The GEF project of environmental sustainability management for medical waste in China has been developed and implemented. The overall objectives of the project are to incorporate the concept of overall-process management in life cycle of medical waste into medical waste management and disposal of China, facilitate BAT/BEP application and promotion, improve China's abilities of medical waste management and disposal, promote reduction of medical waste and realize the target of harmlessness, by introducing the advanced experiences in medical waste management and disposal from foreign countries. Currently, most of the activities in demonstration stage have already been completed, and it is expected to reach the dioxin concentration of 0.1 ngTEQ/m³ in flue gas of 15 incineration (including pyrolysis) facilities. Hence, the project decides to implement the incentive plan among eligible medical waste incineration facilities in China. In this plan, a process with steps as application, review, examination, technical transformation, verification and award was designed. To standardize and externalize the process, an entire package of files including principles, guidelines, quota and criteria, table and checklist templates were developed, considering all the involved stakeholders. As a result, with active involvements and contribution of the MEP, local governments, enterprises, experts and monitoring instructions, the incentive plan vigorously guided and promoted BAT/BEP replication and application for medical waste disposal, avoided and reduced the generation and emission of dioxin POPs and other toxic substances. Currently, there are 8 incinerators which realized the aim of controlling their dioxins emission under limited concentration of 0.1ng TEQ/m³ in the flue gas.