[Management of waste disposal in medical institutions]

Recently new regulations were elaborated for the management of medical wastes in Austria, FRG, Canada and USA. There is no rule laying down the requirements of the management of medical wastes in Hungary. On the basis of foreign experiences the medical wastes are proposed to range into categories as follow: I. Waste that should be handled in special way within and outside the health care facilities. II. Waste, that should be handled in a special way within the health care facilities. III. General waste (municial-type waste). Basic requirement is the segregating collection of wastes. Color-coding is proposed to identify the content of containers and bags. Incinerators combined with pyrolysis and emission control unites should be preferred to the disposal of medical wastes. The author proposes to issue a rule setting out definitions and basic principles of management of medical wastes. Individual health care establishments should prepare own written policies and measures for waste handling appropriate to their specific requirements.