Implementation of HACCP in the risk management of medical waste generated from endoscopy

Shinji Kojima, Masahiko Kato, Da-Hong Wang, Noriko Sakano, Masafumi Fujii and Keiki Ogino

Journal of Risk Research, 2008, vol. 11, issue 7, 925-936

Abstract: Medical waste poses health hazards, increases the environmental load and is costly to dispose of. To solve the above problems, we applied the hazard analysis and critical control point system (HACCP) to the management of wastes generated from endoscopy. First, the wastes in three hospitals were quantified. The number and weight of waste per case differed significantly among the three hospitals. Second, HACCP was applied to the endoscopy unit of Hospital X for a year. Wastes were segregated into five types and weighed. We found that 25.8% of 'infectious waste' was in fact 'non-infectious waste' and 'non-infectious plastic waste'. The numbers of needles and needle caps did not correspond in two occasions (needle-loss rate: 0.42%). Bacterial counts of the waste container were determined to investigate infection hazard. The counts were 0 ;cfu/cm-super-2 in all examinations except one occasion. The waste control manifests were reviewed, and all entries were consistent with the waste sent for disposal. In Hospital X where implementation of HACCP was attempted, reduction of environmental load and cutting of disposal cost are anticipated by changing the categories of waste segregation. The results suggest that hospital wastes should be managed more safely by HACCP.

Date: 2008
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669870802180613 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:11:y:2008:i:7:p:925-936

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJRR20

DOI: 10.1080/13669870802180613

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor

More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().