Destruction of Medical Wastes by Safety Processes According to the Iraqi Environmental Limits

Abstract

The bacterial pollution for hazardous medical wastes produced by autoclave shredder was studied in some local hospitals in Iraq. A modulation has been introduced to the treatment process which is the use of Ultraviolet light on the medical wastes after producing from the autoclave shredder in different retention times in the density of 254 nm, to control and full killing of all kind of microbial life in the produced medical wastes, therefore , treated as municipality wastes according to the environmental limits. Results show the ability of pathogenic bacteria to re-generate in the produced medical wastes within the periods of 72 hours that reaches up to 20 cell / ml, while the use of UV light in a retention time of 15 min. was able to destroy all bacterial growth in the same period of 72 hours