This is the second edition of the WHO handbook on the safe, sustainable and affordable management of health-care waste--commonly known as "the Blue Book". The original Blue Book was a comprehensive publication used widely in health-care centers and government agencies to assist in the adoption of national guidance. It also provided support to committed medical directors and managers to make improvements and presented practical information on waste-management techniques for medical staff and waste workers. It has been more than ten years since the first edition of the Blue Book. During the intervening period, the requirements on generators of health-care wastes have evolved and new methods have become available. Consequently, WHO recognized that it was an appropriate time to update the original text. The purpose of the second edition is to expand and update the practical information in the original Blue Book. The new Blue Book is designed to continue to be a source of impartial health-care information and guidance on safe waste-management practices. The editors' intention has been to keep the best of the original publication and supplement it with the latest relevant information. The audience for the Blue Book has expanded. Initially, the publication was intended for those directly involved in the creation and handling of health-care wastes: medical staff, health-care facility directors, ancillary health workers, infection-control officers and waste workers. This is no longer the situation. A wider range of people and organizations now have an active interest in the safe management of health-care wastes: regulators, policy-makers, development organizations, voluntary groups, environmental bodies, environmental health practitioners, advisers, researchers and students. They should also find the new Blue Book of benefit to their activities. Chapters 2 and 3 explain the various types of waste produced from health-care facilities, their typical characteristics and the hazards these wastes pose to patients, staff and the general environment. Chapters 4 and 5 introduce the guiding regulatory principles for developing local or national approaches to tackling health-care waste management and transposing these into practical plans for regions and individual health-care facilities. Specific methods and technologies are described for waste minimization, segregation and treatment of health-care wastes in Chapters 6, 7 and 8. These chapters introduce the basic features of each technology and the operational and environmental characteristics required to be achieved, followed by information on the potential advantages and disadvantages of each system. To reflect concerns about the difficulties of handling health-care wastewaters, Chapter 9 is an expanded chapter with new guidance on the various sources of wastewater and wastewater treatment options for places not connected to central sewerage systems. Further chapters address issues on economics (Chapter 10), occupational safety (Chapter 11), hygiene and infection control (Chapter 12), and staff training and public awareness (Chapter 13). A wider range of information has been incorporated into this edition of the Blue Book, with the addition of two new chapters on health-care waste management in emergencies (Chapter 14) and an overview of the emerging issues of pandemics, drug-resistant pathogens, climate change and technology advances in medical techniques that will have to be accommodated by health-care waste systems in the future (Chapter 15).

Biosafety in the Laboratory is a concise set of practical guidelines for handling and disposing of biohazardous material. The consensus of top experts in laboratory safety, this volume provides the information needed for immediate improvement of safety practices. It discusses high- and low-risk biological agents (including the highest-risk materials handled in labs today), presents the "seven basic rules of biosafety," addresses special issues such as the shipping of dangerous materials, covers waste disposal in detail, offers a checklist for administering laboratory safetyâ€"and more.

Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

This complete guide to infectious and medical waste management is required reading for everyone who handles, treats, transports, disposes of, or is responsible for this waste. Until now, no book has been written that explains in detail how to safely comply with the complex regulations and how to set up an effective infectious and medical waste program (including AIDS and Hepatitis B viruses) so the right decisions can be made. This valuable book gives you the expertise of the authors' combined 30 years' experience with this vital topic. Organized and presented in a clear, concise style-complete and practical-Infectious and Medical Waste Management covers every major and minor topic in this field: Medical Waste, Infectious Waste, Chemical Waste, and Radioactive Waste-everything you need to know is thoroughly covered. Presents waste audit plan organized by: collection, containers, spills, storage and processing, transportation, treatment, disposal, personnel and management.

Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation presents a detailed analysis on using scientific methods to recover and reuse energy from Toxic waste. Dr. Barik and his team of expert authors recognize that there has been a growing rise in the quantum and diversity of toxic waste materials produced by human activity, and as such there is an increasing need to adopt new methods for the safe regeneration and minimization of waste produce around the world. It is predominately broken down into 5 sections: - The first section provides and overview on the Toxic waste generation addressing the main components for the imbalance in ecosystem derived from human activity - The second section sets out ways in which toxic waste can be managed through various methods such as chemical treatment, cracking and Electro-beam treatment - The final 3 sections deliver an insight in to how energy can be extracted and recycled into power from waste energy and the challenges that these may offer This book is essential reference for engineering industry workers and students seeking to adopt new techniques for reducing toxic waste and in turn extracting energy from it whilst complying with pollution control standards from across the world. - Presents techniques which can be adopted to reduce toxic organic waste while complying with regulations and extract useable energy it - Includes case studies of various global industries such as nuclear, medical and research laboratories to further enhance the readers understanding of efficient planning, toxic organic waste reduction methods and energy conversion techniques - Analyses methods of extracting and recycling energy from toxic organic waste products