Wastes from health care activities--information from the World Health Organization. (Technical Briefs).

Of the total wastes generated by health care activities, almost 80 percent are general wastes that are comparable to domestic waste. The remaining 20 percent or so are considered hazardous materials that may be infectious, toxic, or radioactive. Health care wastes and by-products cover a diverse range of materials:

* Infectious wastes include cultures and stocks of infectious agents, wastes from infected patients, wastes contaminated with blood and its derivatives, discarded diagnostic samples, and infected animals from laboratories.

* Anatomic wastes consist of recognizable body parts and animal carcasses.

* Sharps comprise syringes, disposable scalpels, blades, and so forth.

* Chemical wastes include solvents and disinfectants.

* Pharmaceutical wastes include expired, unused, and contaminated drugs, as well as drug metabolites, vaccines, and sera.

* Genotoxic wastes are highly hazardous, mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic wastes (e.g., the cytotoxic drugs used in cancer treatment and their metabolites).

* Radioactive waste is any matter, such as glassware, contaminated with radioactive diagnostic material or radiotherapeutic materials.

* Wastes with high heavy metal content include broken mercury thermometers.

Infectious and anatomic wastes together represent the majority of hazardous wastes, up to 15 percent of the total waste from health care activities. Sharps represent about 1 percent. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals amount to about 3 percent. Genotoxic waste, radioactive matter, and wastes with heavy metal content represent about 1 percent.

The major sources of health care waste are hospitals and other health care establishments, laboratories and research centers, mortuary and autopsy centers, animal research and testing laboratories, blood banks and collection services, and nursing homes.

High-income countries can generate up to 6 kilograms of hazardous waste per person per year. In the majority of low-income countries, health care waste is usually not divided into hazardous and nonhazardous streams. In these countries, the total health care waste per person per year is anywhere from 0.5 to 3 kilograms.