COVID-19 Medical Waste

• COVID-19
• Medical waste
• Types of medical waste produced due to manage COVID 19
• Environmental hazards of these medical waste
• Health hazards of these medical waste
• Sustainable management of COVID-19 medical waste

In the 1930s Coronavirus was first discovered, it transmitted to the human body in 1960, causing a zoonotic disease. It jumped from one species to another. But recently in December 2019, the outbreak was traced back to an unprecedented strain from China. Scientists believe that it might have jumped from bats to pangolins and pangolins to humans. International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named it as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) so-called COVID-19 or coronavirus.

Fig: microscope image of COVID virus

Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause respiratory tract infections. It is named after crown as it has spikes resembling a crown that protrude from its surface. It enters the body through the nose, mouth, or eyes, then infects the oily membrane, once inside the human body it sticks to a membrane cell with the help of its spikes, releases its RNA, and hijacks the human cell. As the infection progresses, it starts assembling more copies of the virus, each infected cell can release up to millions of copies. In the time being our immune system overreacts and starts attacking our lung cells causing our lungs to get damaged, fluid buildup occurs within making it difficult to breathe i.e., the experience is similar to that of a person drowning in water. During the early stage, some people may not show any symptoms of the incubation period, i.e., up to the first five days of infection on average. However, in most cases, some symptoms may appear which include fever, loss of smell or taste, repeated shaking, muscle pain, sore throat, etc. The symptoms may vary from person to person. While I’m writing this assignment there are already 5.5 M Confirmed cases of infection and 346K death. It has already spread in 207 countries across the world at lightning speed. Social distancing is the principal measure of prevention of this virus as of now.

Types of medical waste produced due to COVID 19

COVIDsituation is one of the largest health crisis of our time. As a consequence of which a large amount of hazardous medical waste is being produced. One-time use masks, gloves are being widely used by the public for fighting the pandemic, these wastes are ending up in the environment. All-around the world people are using those products so a large number of wastes are being produced every day. Not only these, personal protective equipment (PPE) are also being used by doctors and health workers to treat infected people. Standard PPE by the WHO are single time usable —every set of PPE becomes hazardous medical waste after being used for a single time. A standard PPE contains 6 components full-body long foot cover, mask, goggles, face shield, face mask, and a pair of hand gloves. All these components are single time usable, except the goggles and face shield, which can be reused following standard disinfecting procedure. However, the other 4 items of PPE can’t be reused.

Environmental hazards of these medical waste:

Gloves, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are being used for fighting the pandemic but are also widely used by the general public. Face masks are widely used as the first line of protection against COVID-19. Face masks contribute to over 65% of medical waste produced due to COVID 19. There are various types of face masks available, those made with non-woven fabric, polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, or polyester have excellent bacteria filtration and air permeability. Some face masks are also made of melted plastic. These products aren’t Eco-friendly and do not decompose, causing harm to the environment. Not only that, gloves are also made of latex rubber, but that also isn't always eco-friendly, some gloves that are made by eco-friendly material, use additional chemicals which can harm the environment when upon decomposition. Uninhabited places like Islands are also affected by such wastes. The photo was taken in an island called gray stokes an uninhabited island, few nautical miles from Hong Kong, a conservation group from the OceansAsia found 100 used masks which eventually washed up from city and ended up in the sea. Our environment and wildlife is already fighting against plastic pollution, so environmentalists fear that now the situation will be worse than ever, and there will be negative consequences.

Fig: OceansAsia conservation group holds up surgical masks found on Soko Islands

Health hazards of these medical waste:

Coronavirus is a highly Infectious disease, by breathing the virus can infect you if you are within close proximity of someone who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface of medical waste and afterwards touching your own eyes, nose or mouth you can also be infected. It can survive on various surfaces for a particular length of time depending on the temperature and several other conditions. It can survive 3-7 days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces. Personal protective equipment (PPE) used by the doctors and health workers full-body long foot cover made with non-woven fabric, polystyrene and polycarbonate without usage any kind of anti-bacterial reagent virus can survive on it as well. The medical waste produced by the coronavirus can also spread the virus easily.Therefore, disposal of patient's belongings is also another arena that we need to focus on. All of these also need to be disposed off according to the guidelines by WHO.

Sustainable management of COVID-19 medical waste:

Covid-19 is producing a large number of hazardous medical waste, with personal protective equipment (PPE), single use mask, gloves being the main components. Not only that, but there are also other types of hazardous medical wastes being produced in this pandemic, like facial tissue, oxygen masks, disposable syringes, test tubes, saline bags, needles, etc. which are being used to treat corona patients. The most common method is burning in high-heat any kind or medical waste. Disposal of hazardous waste generated from Covid-19 treatment is not an easy task, waste from Covide-19 should be transported in a sealed and specialized vehicle. Those wastes must be stored in a controlled environment and burnt at more than 700 degrees Celsius, and the flue gas should be released very carefully into the environment after filtering harmful particles. Frankly speaking, our waste management of both the City Corporations is not well-equipped and lacks proper facilities to transport and dispose this kind of hazardous medical waste. This problem can’t be solved overnight, now we have to focus on a temporary solution to fight this COVID situation. With limited resources hospitals that have a backyard, can burn the waste under controlled environments at more than 700 degrees Celsius. They can build single-chamber incinerators which are not ideal for this kind of waste but are considered a better option than open burning. Hospitals can easily build single-chamber incinerators in their backyard and burn their waste in a controlled environment and the afterburn waste should be covered with soil for now, but we must keep in mid that this is not an ideal waste management system. We have to invest in a permanent solution as soon as possible.