Medical Waste after COVID-19 Pandemic, Management and Environmental Impacts

Year 2022, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 39 - 50, 30.06.2022

Sukru Dursun , Zoran Sapurıc

Abstract

Since December 2019, the onset of COVID-19 disease has ranked first as the most important event worldwide. It is a contagious virus that starts as a respiratory system problem in general and causes many different symptoms depending on the human immune system in the body. It is tried to be protected from the contagious effect of the disease with the immunity system of the people and the individual protection rules. As of mid-June 2022, Corona-19 pandemic virus cases are estimated at 550 million worldwide, while deaths from the disease are estimated at 6.4 million. About 500 tons medical waste is produced every day in conneted to COVID-19, where the first case was seen in the Chinese province of Wuhan. With the data obtained in Indonesia (Jakarta), approximately 13 thousand tons of medical waste was reached 60 days after the first infection in humans, with the medical waste scale. Resently, millions ton virus contaminated masks, gloves, and medical supplies are in the process of creating irreversible infectious waste, for testing to detect and detect Covid-19 and other human pathogens, and to treat infection. In the case of solid waste management, improper storage, transportation and improper use cause environmental and health problems. In addition, due to the significant waste in healthcare services caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic, it is thought that the unsafe disposal of hospital wastes will threaten to spread environmental pollution. As a result, one of the many environmental problems that will necessarily arise is infectious waste, which can cause serious diseases and environmental problems if not managed properly. One of the effects of the increase in Covid-19 cases on medical waste was to further increase the generation of such waste, which is 0.95 to 3.52 kg per day per bed in hospitals. Medical masks, gloves and protective clothing, which are the main defense tools in the fight and protection against Covid-19, are becoming an increasing problem of medical waste around the world. In addition, uncollected medical wastes enter the aquatic environment in the sewer or environment after being transported by wind and rain. In order to reduce the waste load and pollution, from municipal and industrial waste need to be recycled and reused. Again, infectious and dangerous hospital wastes should be managed correctly by the municipality and other responsible persons. For this, appropriate methods should be put forward to control the environmental impact and waste. In this study, the applicability of thermochemical conversion technologies to dispose of COVID-19 medical wastes was evaluated. Moreover; Processes including heating, pyrolysis, carbonization and gasification were evaluated. Among these incineration, thermo-chemical technologies, digestion is thought to facilitate variety of contaminated medical waste types, followed by gasification and pyrolysis.

Keywords

Environmental Impacts, Medical Waste, Covid-19 Pandemic, Waste Management

References

• Barasheed. 0, Alfelali. M. Mushta, S. Bokhary. H. 2016. Uptake and effectiveness of facemask against respiratory infections at mass gatherings: a systematic review. lnt. j. Infect. Dis. 47, 105-111.
• Benson NU, Bassey DE, Palanisami T,2021, COVID pollution: impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global plastic waste footprint, Heliyon, 7, 2, e06343, ISSN 2405-8440, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06343. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844021004485)
• Browne. M.A., Dissanayake, A .. Galloway, T.S., Lowe. D.M .. Thompson. R.C.. 2008. Ingested microscopic plastic translocates to the circulatory system of the mussel, Mytilus edulis (L). Environ. Sci. Technol. 42, 5026-5031.
• Chintalapudi, N., Battineni. G .. Amenta, F. . 2020. COVID-19 virus outbreak forecasting of registered and recovered cases after sixty day lockdown in Italy: a data driven model approach. J. Microbial. lmmunol. Infect 53, 396-403.
• Cole, M .. Webb, H .. Lindeque, P.K., Fileman. ES., Halsband, C., Galloway, T.S., 2014. Isolation of microplastics in biota-rich seawater samples and marine organisms. Sci. Rep. 4, I.
• ECDPC (2020a) European Centre for Disease prevention and Control. COVID-19 pandemic Stockholm: ECDC; 2020 [cited 2020 24 June]. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19-pandemic
• Fadare & Okoffo, (2020) Covid-19 face masks: A potential source of microplastic fibers in the environment. Science of the Total Environment737 140279 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv2020.140279
• Fadare, 0.0., Wan. B., Guo, L. Zhao, L. 2020. Microplastics from consumer plastic food containers: are we consuming it? Chemosphere 253. 126787. Freedman DO, 2020. Isolation. Quarantine. Social Distancing and Community Containment:
• Galloway, T.S., Cole, M., Lewis, c .. 2017. Interactions of microplastic debris throughout the marine ecosystem. Nat. Pub!. Gr. 1, 1-8.
• Ikiz, E., Maclaren, V.W., Alfred, E., Sivanesan, S., 2021. Impact of COVID-19 on household waste flows, diversion and reuse: the case of multi-residential buildings in TorontoCanada. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 164, 105111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2020.105111.
• Kulkarni BN, Anantharama V (2020) Repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic onmunicipal solid waste management: challenges and opportunities. Sci TotalEnviron 743:140693.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140693
• Kampf, G., Scheithauer, S., Lemmen, S., Saliou, P., Suchomel, M., 2020. COVID-19- associated shortage of alcohol-based hand rubs, face masks, medical gloves, and gowns: proposal for a risk-adapted approach to ensure patient and healthcare worker safety. J. Hosp. Infect. 105, 424–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.04.041.
• Lin Y, Liu C, Chiu Y. (2020). Google searches for the keywords of "wash hands" predict the speed of national spread of COVID-19 outbreak among 21 countries. Brain Behav. lmmun. 0-1. Zafer N, 2021) Tekirdağ ili tıbbi atık yönetimi ve COVID-19 pandemi koşulları etkisinin değerlendirilmesi. Tekirdağ Namık Kemal Üniversitesi, MSC. Thesis, Tekirdag
• Purnomo CW, Kurniawan W, Aziz M, (2021) Technological review on thermochemical conversion of COVID-19-related medical wastes. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 167105429 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105429
• Reid, A.j., Carlson. A.K .. Creed, I.F., Eliason. E.].. Gell, P.A .. Johnson. P.T.j., Kidd, K.A., Maccormack, T.j., Olden, j.D .. Ormerod, S.j., Smol, J.P .. Taylor, W.W .. Tockner. K., Vermaire. J.C.. Dudgeon. D .. Cooke. S.j .. 2019. Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity. Biol. Rev. 94, 849-873.
• Rajmohan KVS, Ramya C, Viswanathan MR, Varjani S, 2019. Plastic pollutants: effective waste management for pollution control and abatement. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health 12, 72-84 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coesh.2019.08.006
• Rist. S. Carney Almroth. B .. Hartmann. N.B. Karlsson. T.M .. 2018. A critical perspective on early communications concerning human health aspects of microplastics. Sci. Total Environ. 626, 720-726.
• Rume T, Islam SD-U (2020) Environmental effects of COVID-19 pan-demic and potential strategies of sustainability. Heliyon e04965. Saglam M., Arikan H., Savci S., Inal-Ince D., Bosnak-Guclu M., Karabulut E., Tokgozoglu L. International physical activity questionnaire: reliability and validity of the turkish version. Percept. Mot. Skills. 2010;111(1):278–284. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
• Somani M. Somani A.2020 Indirect implications of COVID-19 towards sustainable environment: An investigation in Indian context Bioresource Technology Reports DOI: 10.1016/j.biteb.2020.100491
• Tsukiji M., Gamaralalage P.J.D., Pratomo I.S.Y., Onogawa K., Alverson K., Honda S., Ternald D., Dilley M., Fujioka J., Condrorini D. 2020. Waste management during the COVID-19 pandemic from response to recovery. United Nation ENviron. Program. Int. ENviron. Technol. Centre (IETC) IGES Center Collab. UNDP Environ. Technol. (CCET) 2020:1–60. [Google Scholar]
• URL-01 https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/(Retrieved June 20, 2020)
• URL-02 (https://koronavirus.ibb.istanbul/ ) (Retrieved June 20, 2020)
• URL-03 https://covid19.who.int/ (Retrieved June 20, 2020)
• URL-04 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports (Retrieved June 20, 2020)
• URL-05 https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/ TezGoster?key=v7BkNnnepTnbhn8rNR77LUoBs6GmjqjFxKEnF-lfNJpkoNgN-Db01KhxTG3xXsto]. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11776/4348(Retrieved June 20, 2020)
• URL-06. https://www.tuik.gov.tr/Home/Index (Retrieved June 20, 2020).
• URL-07. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=37198&dil=2
• WHO (2020) World Health Organization. Modes of transmission of virus causing COVID-19: implications for IPC precaution recommendations. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications-detail/modesof- transmission-of-virus-causing-covid-19-implications-for-ipcprecaution recommendations [last accessed April 2020
• Vanapalli KR, Sharma HB, Ranjan VP, Samal B, Bhattacharya J, Dubey BK, Goel S, 2021, Challenges and strategies for effective plastic waste management during and post COVID-19 pandemic, Science of The Total Environment, 750,141514,ISSN 0048-9697,
• WHO, 2020. World Health Organization Shortage of personal protective equipment endangering health workers worldwide. March, 3. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/03-03-2020-shortage-of-personal-protective-equipment-endangering-healthworkers-worldwide Retrieved on May 7. 2020.
• Wright, S.L. Thompson. R.C.. Galloway, T.S .. 2013. The physical impacts of microplastics on marine organisms: a review. Environ. Pollut. 178. 483-492.
• Yang, A.P .. Seale, H .. Macintyre. R., Zhang, H .. Zhang. Z .. Zhang, Y .. Wang, X .. Li. X .. Pang, X .. Wang, Q,, 2008. ORIGINAL Mask-wearing and Respiratory Infection in Healthcare Workers in Beijing. China.
• Zafar. M. Najeeb. S. Khurshid, Z. Vazirzadeh. M. Zohaib. S .. 2016. Potential ofElectrospun Nanofibers for Biomedical and Dental Applications. pp. 1-21.