Environmental and Health Risks Associated with Biomedical Waste: A Case of University Teaching Hospital of Butare, Huye, Rwanda
Abstract
This study investigated the environmental and health risks associated with biomedical waste in CHUB, Huye District, Rwanda. In the majority of countries across the world, the preservation of the environment and public health depends on the proper biomedical waste collection and disposal. It has been reported that the management of biomedical wastes results in needless deaths of individuals each year. The study had four objectives: (1) To assess the biomedical waste generation and disposal practices across all departments at CHUB;(2) To investigate the implementation and enforcement of biomedical waste management regulations ;(3) To assess the risks related to biomedical waste to humans and the environment.; and (4) To find out the level of knowledge among healthcare workers on biomedical waste management. With a cross-sectional study design survey and observation methods, data were collected from clinical service of inpatient departments, and the study population was 196 health workers. The WHO rapid assessment tool for waste management and water sanitation was adapted and used. The results of this study showed a great amount of biomedical waste are well segregated (92%), and color coding is respected during biomedical wastes collection and disposal (100%) but a significant part of biomedical liquid wastes are disposed of directly to hand-wash sink water evacuation (14%). Significant cases of needle stick injuries were also observed (21%) and internal regulations and protocols on biomedical waste management are available in most clinical services. The study recommends that regular training of health professionals in biomedical waste management, including transport and disposal essentials, connect remaining clinical departments to the specialized pit dedicated to biomedical liquid wastes to avoid any risk of direct contamination or environmental contamination; and documentation on the type of biomedical waste generated in all clinical services is an important point to be improved.
Keywords: Biomedical wastes, Environmental risk, Waste segregation, Color-coding System, Infection Prevention Control, Environmental risks, University Teaching Hospital of Butare
Keywords:
Biomedical wastes, Environmental risk, Waste segregation, Color-coding System, Infection Prevention Control, Environmental risks, University Teaching, Hospital of ButareDOI
https://doi.org/10.22270/jddt.v15i6.7180References
1. Cole, E.C.: Internal Medical Waste Management, Durham, North Carolina, 1995;7218:31-48.
2.Awodele, O., Adewoye, A. A., & Oparah, A. C. Assessment of medical waste management in seven hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. BMC Public Health, 2016;16(1):1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2916-1 PMid:26979131 PMCid:PMC4791961
3.Adogu, O. U., Ubajaka, C. F., & Nebuwa, J. E. (2014). Research Article: Knowledge and Practice of Medical Waste Management Among Health Workers. Asia journal of science and technology Vol. 5, Issue 12, pp.833-838, December 2014
4.Oyekale, A. S., & Oyekale, T. O. Healthcare waste management practices and safety indicators in Nigeria. BMC Public Health, 2017;17(1):1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4794-6 PMid:28946876 PMCid:PMC5613492
5. World Health Organization. (2005). Management of Solid Healthcare Waste at Primary Healthcare Centers: A Decision Guide. WHO.
6.Oyebode, O. J., Coker, A. O. C., Sridhar, M. K. C., & Ogarekpe, N. M. (2022). Biomedical Waste Management Practices in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights of Its Impacts and Strategies. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95820-6_21
7. Mahoro, J. Hospital solid waste management systems and practices at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK). Afribary, 2010.
8. Erigene Rutayisire, Jean Aime Nsabimana, Michael Habtu (2019). Knowledge and practices for biomedical waste management among health care personnel at Kabgayi District hospital, Rwanda. https://doi.org/10.14302/issn.2641-4538.jphi-19-3005
9. WHO (2014). Safe management of wastes from health-care activities. World Health Organization
10. Chartier, Y., Emmanuel, J., Pieper, U., et al. (2014). Safe management of wastes from health-care activities: a summary. World Health Organization(WHO).
11.Prüss-Üstün, A., Rapiti, E., & Hutin, Y. (2019). Sharps injuries: Assessing the disease burden from sharp injuries to healthcare workers at the national and local levels. World Health Organisation(WHO).
12.Windfeld, E. S., & Brooks, M. S. L. Medical waste management-A review. Journal of Environmental Management, 2015;163, 98108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.08.013 PMid:26301686
13. Shamim, S., Ahmad, I., & Bano, S. (2021). Biomedical waste management practices in healthcare facilities: Current scenario and future perspectives. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(12), 14713-14722.
14.Patil, A. D., Shekdar, A. V., & Tambe, S. B. (2021). A review of biomedical waste management system: Issues and challenges. Environmental Technology & Innovation, 21, 101339.
15.Saxena, S., Srivastava, R. K., & Kundu, S. (2010). Biomedical waste management: Review. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 4(3), 3407-3413.
16. Gupta, P. P., Bankar, N. J., Mishra, V. H., Sanghavi, S., & Badge, A. K. (2023). The Efficient Disposal of Biomedical Waste Is Critical to Public Health: Insights from the Central Pollution Control Board Guidelines in India. Publimed Cureus. 2023 Oct 19;15(10):e47303. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.47303
17. World Health Organization. (2018). Safe Management of Wastes from Health-care Activities (2nd ed.). WHO Press. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/85349
18.Ghahramani, S., et al. (2020). Needle-stick and sharps injuries among healthcare workers in a teaching hospital. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 1-8.
19. CDC. (2018). Updated U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for the Management of Occupational Exposures to HIV and Recommendations for Post-Exposure Prophylaxis.
20. Ippolito, G., Puro, V., & Heptonstall, J. (2000). Occupational human immunodeficiency virus infection in health care workers: worldwide cases through September 1997. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 28(2), 365-383. https://doi.org/10.1086/515101 PMid:10064256
21. Reddy, V. K., Karpagam, S., & Ponnaiah, M. (2013). Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding biomedical waste management among healthcare workers. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 38(2), 102-104.
Published
Abstract Display: 387 
PDF Downloads: 431 PDF Downloads: 56 How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2025 Jean Damascene BUREGEYA , Eric SIBOMANA
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
How to Cite
.