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Management of Hazardous Pharmaceutical Waste Generated from Health Care Facilities

Article

Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Tags

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Abstract

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), a number of drug entities and pharmaceutical formulations, generated in health care facilities, meet the definition of hazardous waste, including epinephrine, warfarin, nicotine, and seven chemotherapeutic agents. This study has been carried out to assess the hazardous pharmaceutical waste generation in one large multi-specialty hospital in Alexandria for the ultimate objective of recommending an environmentally sound management plan for this waste. Alexandria University Main Hospital was selected for the study. A checklist containing the names of the drugs that are considered hazardous upon disposal was developed. Data concerning the generation and the management of this waste were collected using 2 questionnaire forms. The study revealed that ten hazardous pharmaceuticals are generated from the hospital departments. They are Epinephrine, m-cresol, phenol, silver sulfadiazine, multi-mineral formulations containing Cr and Se, warfarin, cyclophosphamide, chlorambucil, melphalan, and daunomycin. These drugs, as well as the other pharmaceutical waste, are managed as infectious waste: collected in yellow bags, stored in the storage area for infectious waste, and transported by the Private Company responsible for solid waste management in Alexandria Governorate to treatment by shredding and autoclaving prior to ultimate landfill. Consequently, the study recommended a hazardous pharmaceutical waste management plan taking into consideration other equally hazardous drugs such as all chemotherapeutic agents, mutagenic or teratogenic substances, endocrine disruptors, and immunosuppressant drugs. Thermal destruction of all these drugs would provide the highest level of best management practice available at this time. The ash resulting has to be tested and eventually disposed in a lined hazardous waste landfill.

DOI

10.21608/jhiph.2008.22499

Keywords

Pharmaceutical waste, Hazardous waste, Health care facilities, waste management, Epinephrine, Chemotherapeutic agents

Authors

First Name

Rim

Last Name

Hussein

MiddleName

A.

Affiliation

Department of Environmental Health, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Email

rimahamid@yahoo.com

City

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Orcid

-

First Name

Dina

Last Name

Selim

MiddleName

H.

Affiliation

Clinical Pharmacy Department, Alexandria University Main Hospital, Alexandria, Egypt

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

38

Article Issue

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the High Institute of Public Health "AlexHealth 2008"

Related Issue

4253

Issue Date

2008-11-01

Receive Date

2018-12-20

Publish Date

2008-11-01

Page Start

49

Page End

65

Print ISSN

2357-0601

Online ISSN

2357-061X

Link

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/article_22499.html

Detail API

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=22499

Order

4

Type

Original Article

Type Code

511

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of High Institute of Public Health

Publication Link

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Management of Hazardous Pharmaceutical Waste Generated from Health Care Facilities

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023