Collecting, transporting, and the disposal of wastes and hazardous goods is currently a complex issue that needs critical control and effective monitoring based on specific rules. The complexity of the problem is so serious that industrialized nations have developed rules and regulations, which medical institutions must comply with regardless of whether they are either public or private. Taking the responsibility of managing biomedical wastes is difficult but exposure to risks may result in detrimental repercussions, affecting the waste generators, the community, and the operators. Therefore, it is crucial to collect, separate, and dispose of wastes safely and in compliance with scientific principles to mitigate the dangers associated with them. For example, hazardous waste management considers the health of the people and ensures safety to protect the environment and promote ecosystem health. Similarly, there is a need to handle hazardous wastes safely to protect workers in the healthcare setting exposure to blood as regards the nature of their routine roles and responsibilities. Therefore, proper handling of hazardous wastes protects them from the risk of infection by pathogens from the cascading bodily fluids in the work environment. This paper discusses how to effectively and efficiently manage wastes from healthcare facilities to reduce environmental damage and vulnerability to infection among healthcare professionals; although this will depend on strong national policies.
Managing hazardous wastes during transportation requires policies and objectives that necessitate auditing is an initiative towards promoting environmental safety. This implies that the wastes in context need to be classified, characterized, inventoried, and planning for their treatment before disposal. Currently, medical waste is a global challenge that is anticipated to increase in complexity. Therefore, it requires the enforcement of strict policies for their disposal and environmental protection. This will reduce expenses associated with the disposal of medical wastes, and the patient will be relieved from the ever-growing treatment costs. Therefore, integrating an appropriate medical waste management plan will ensure that their generation, segregation, handling, and even transportation are done based on a standard operating procedure (Sundarakani, 2017). Consequently, the medical staff will ensure proper treatment of the same before disposal. Notably, all aspects of safety should be captured in the regulations to ensure that both environmental and occupational health is topnotch.
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Additionally, there is a need to develop procedures to comply with as regards the storage and segregation of hazardous wastes like explosives, gases, corrosive, toxic substance, and flammable materials. Therefore the government should introduce Codes like A, B, and C to clarify the distance at which the hazardous materials should be handled to avoid exposure (Sundarakani, 2017). Additionally, the healthcare sector should outline specific procedures to be followed to segregate pathological, infectious, and sharp wastes. This should ensure that pressurized containers and pharmaceutical products are handled differently. The health facilities should have specific containers for disposing medical wastes rather than just using yellow bags. The policies should further stipulate on-site disposal of medical wastes before incineration instead of haphazard discard; hence, ensuring effective waste tracking.
Currently, medical chemicals transported from either one facility to the next or the point of disposal result in about 21% related accidents. Equipment failure has equally contributed to approximately 39% of the injurious cases of the chemicals while human error stands at 33% (Sundarakani, 2017). This danger is anticipated to increase, especially on roads characterized by traffic frequency of tank trucks and those with hazardous chemicals in transit. Most black spots have also resulted in accidents and vehicles transporting explosive chemicals like petroleum have resulted in severe environmental issues.
Despite the risks in context, governments of various states can still improve on strengthening their policies to provide standards for the quality of vehicles and conditions of their respective infrastructure. Similarly, this will ensure that the members of the crew are equipped with basic amenities that minimize probable human error and associated equipment failure. Consequently, healthcare departments will ensure proper release of medical chemicals, especially the toxic, explosive, and flammable liquids to reduce associated dangers like burns. This implies that there is still a need to strengthen various government agencies like poison control center, environmental protection firms, the police, and fire departments for fast rescue in case of accidents from hazardous chemicals (Sundarakani, 2017). Additionally, traffic police, for instance, will observe the speed at which long-distance petroleum trucks move, especially on roads with dense populations.
Generally, ensuring safety on roads is possible if the cosigners obtain appropriate permit authorizing the transportation of hazardous materials. This necessitates the need for awareness creation to sensitize drivers on the risks involved with the hazardous material in transit. Furthermore, the owner of the vehicle transporting hazardous materials should provide the driver with the required safety equipment to reduce risks. This involves the provision of comprehensive information detailing the various safety rules and regulations.
Furthermore, the transportation of hazardous materials by either trailers or trains still poses enormous challenges. For example, transportation via major cities increase risks associated with the inhalation of toxins. Therefore, the routing decisions matter a lot although public policy guidelines may not capture the same since it determines the rate at which risks and safety issues either reduce or proliferate in society. Notably, increased exposure to hazardous materials automatically compromises the safety of the people and the environment. For example, taking a specific route during transportation of petroleum or cyanide chemicals may necessitate traveling an extra distance. In the course of the journey, the driver may encounter infrastructure that cannot facilitate the transportation of harmful chemicals. Typically, the alternative routes may be substandard and lacking the right emergency response services. Similarly, the personnel in such routes may lack the competence required to handle goods that are hazardous. In this regard, the various governments across the globe should advance their rail transport networks. This will provide both technological and competitive advantage in dealing with hazmat movements that are peculiarly different from material transportation. In light of the increased accident cases involving fuel tankers, hazmat movements require advanced information technology to facilitate information sharing to ensure accurate preplanning and prioritization initiatives (Sundarakani, 2017). Consequently, the world will realize a better economic impact coupled with the justification of the various mode movements available. Therefore, countries involved in the transportation of hazardous materials will record increased productivity and efficient utilization of the available rail capacity as reflected by diverse economic models.
In a nutshell, the transportation of hazardous materials like petroleum, flammable acids, and toxins among other explosives is a very risky undertaking. Sadly, it does not only result in environmental deterioration but also threatens the lives of both drivers and employees in various sectors of the economy like drivers and medical professionals. Some of the hazardous materials of concern include flammable liquids, solids, corrosive chemicals, and radioactive materials. All of the aforesaid materials are toxic and can cause detrimental harm to humans and the environment and their movement should align with strict legislation to reduce vulnerabilities.
Reference
Sundarakani, B. (2017). 'Study of Safety Aspects in Handling Hazardous Material Transportation in the Middle East', in K. S. Pawar, A. Potter & A. Lisec (Eds), Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Logistics, Nottingham University Business School, United Kingdom, pp. 451-458. https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1933&context=dubaipapers
