Abstract
Incineration sterilizes and detoxifies medical waste and converts it to innocuous ash, reducing its weight and volume by 90 to 95 percent. However, there is concern about pollutants emitted into the air during the incineration of medical waste, especially acid gases, heavy metals, and dioxins. There is also concern about potentially toxic substances that remain in the ash residues. These pollutants are derived from the waste feed material and generally change in form during the combustion process. The concern increases as hospitals use larger quantities of disposable plastics. In addition, existing incinerator stacks are often short and located close to other buildings.
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Hasselriis, F., Constantine, L. (1992). Characterization of Today’s Medical Waste. In: Green, A.E.S. (eds) Medical Waste Incineration and Pollution Prevention. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3536-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3536-2_2
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