Staff's attitude regarding hospital waste management in the dental college hospitals of Bangalore city, India

BACKGROUND: Growing urbanization has led to several changes in the healthcare sector. While on one hand, access to healthcare services are being provided to the community, thereby resulting in better health for all, improper management of biomedical waste emanating from these healthcare establishments has also given rise to many environmental and health problems (Acharya 2003). Although awareness in this issue has increased considerably over the last few years, sensitivity to this problem has been limited. Most hospitals are not actively involved in addressing this problem. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was conducted to assess the attitude of waste management among staff of dental hospitals in Bangalore city, by issuing a pre-tested structured questionnaire. RESULTS: While 82.6% of attenders said that it is necessary to segregate waste into different categories at the point of origin, 61.5% of auxiliaries strongly disagreed that segregation of waste at source increases the risk of injury to waste handlers. As many as 33.5% of dentists strongly disagreed that segregation of waste at source increases the risk of injury to waste handlers and 53.6% agreed that segregation of waste at source does not increase the risk of injury to waste handlers. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that the staff had good attitude towards waste management among.