Cargando…
A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment
Health-Care Risk Waste (HCRW) treatment protects the environment and lives. HCRW is waste from patient diagnostics, immunization, surgery, and therapy. HCRW must be treated before disposal since it pollutes, spreads illnesses, and causes harm. However, waste treatment increases the healthcare sector...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565833/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231269 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911967 |
_version_ | 1784808987499167744 |
---|---|
author | Zikhathile, Thobile Atagana, Harrison Bwapwa, Joseph Sawtell, David |
author_facet | Zikhathile, Thobile Atagana, Harrison Bwapwa, Joseph Sawtell, David |
author_sort | Zikhathile, Thobile |
collection | PubMed |
description | Health-Care Risk Waste (HCRW) treatment protects the environment and lives. HCRW is waste from patient diagnostics, immunization, surgery, and therapy. HCRW must be treated before disposal since it pollutes, spreads illnesses, and causes harm. However, waste treatment increases the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint, making the healthcare sector a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change. This is because treating HCRW pollutes the environment and requires a lot of energy. Treating HCRW is crucial, but its risks are not well-studied. Unintentionally, treating HCRW leads to climate change. Due to frequent climate-related disasters, present climate-change mitigation strategies are insufficient. All sectors, including healthcare, must act to mitigate and prevent future harms. Healthcare can reduce its carbon footprint to help the environment. All contributing elements must be investigated because healthcare facilities contribute to climate change. We start by evaluating the environmental impact of different HCRW treatment technologies and suggesting strategies to make treatments more sustainable, cost-effective, and reliable to lower the carbon footprint. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9565833 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95658332022-10-15 A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment Zikhathile, Thobile Atagana, Harrison Bwapwa, Joseph Sawtell, David Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Health-Care Risk Waste (HCRW) treatment protects the environment and lives. HCRW is waste from patient diagnostics, immunization, surgery, and therapy. HCRW must be treated before disposal since it pollutes, spreads illnesses, and causes harm. However, waste treatment increases the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint, making the healthcare sector a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change. This is because treating HCRW pollutes the environment and requires a lot of energy. Treating HCRW is crucial, but its risks are not well-studied. Unintentionally, treating HCRW leads to climate change. Due to frequent climate-related disasters, present climate-change mitigation strategies are insufficient. All sectors, including healthcare, must act to mitigate and prevent future harms. Healthcare can reduce its carbon footprint to help the environment. All contributing elements must be investigated because healthcare facilities contribute to climate change. We start by evaluating the environmental impact of different HCRW treatment technologies and suggesting strategies to make treatments more sustainable, cost-effective, and reliable to lower the carbon footprint. MDPI 2022-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9565833/ /pubmed/36231269 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911967 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Zikhathile, Thobile Atagana, Harrison Bwapwa, Joseph Sawtell, David A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment |
title | A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment |
title_full | A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment |
title_fullStr | A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment |
title_full_unstemmed | A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment |
title_short | A Review of the Impact That Healthcare Risk Waste Treatment Technologies Have on the Environment |
title_sort | review of the impact that healthcare risk waste treatment technologies have on the environment |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565833/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231269 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911967 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT zikhathilethobile areviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT ataganaharrison areviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT bwapwajoseph areviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT sawtelldavid areviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT zikhathilethobile reviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT ataganaharrison reviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT bwapwajoseph reviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment AT sawtelldavid reviewoftheimpactthathealthcareriskwastetreatmenttechnologieshaveontheenvironment |