Medical waste management by geographical region in Turkey

Abstract

Medical waste management in Turkey is performed according to the Medical Waste Control Legislation that was regulated in 2005. The purpose of this work is to analyze medical waste management by regions of Turkey from the perspective of this regulation. Tables have been prepared from data obtained from the 2008-2012 Solid Waste Management Action Plan prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and covering all cities in Turkey. There are several data about number of beds in hospitals of all cities in Turkey, total medical waste produced in each city, medical waste produced per person yearly, medical waste disposal method that was used in 2007 and the method that is projected by the year 2012. Medical waste per person that is produced yearly in cities shows a parallelism with hospital bed capacity in that city and is found to be between 0.25 kg to 2.6 kg per person. The most common method used in Turkey so far in disposing of medical wastes was lime desiccation in special lots but recently there has been a tendency towards using a healthier method, namely sterilization. While the sterilization method was not used at all by 2007, the method has been employed in 15 cities as of 2009. It is projected that the number of cities using this method will be 56 by the year 2012. The number of cities using the old method of burial will be 15 in 2012. Since this method is not very appropriate for human health or the environment, these cities should also come up with projects to complete a transition towards the sterilization method. © 2011 DEStech Publications, Inc. © 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.