Biomedical Waste and Necessity of Effluent Treatment Plant in in hospitals

As per the topic of Biomedical Waste we are going to discuss the following terms in this article read full-

• What is Biomedical Waste in Hospital?
• Why proper management of biomedical waste is required in hospital ?
• Hospital Needs of Effluent treatment plant for its sewage waste management.  

Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 of India “Any waste which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of citizenry or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or within the production or testing of biologicals.

The Government of India (notification, 1998) specifies that Hospital Waste Management may be a a part of hospital hygiene and maintenance activities. And this involves management of range of activities, which are mainly engineering functions, like collection, transportation, operation or treatment of processing systems, and proper disposal of wastes.

Acording to World Health Organization 85% of hospital wastes are literally non-hazardous, whereas 10% are infectious and 5% are non-infectious but they're included in hazardous wastes. Near About 15% to 35% of Hospital waste is regulated as infectious waste. This range depends on the entire amount of waste generated (Glenn and Garwal, 1999).5

Classification of Bio-Medical Waste

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified medical waste into 8 Different categories:

• General Waste
• Pathological
• Radioactive
• Chemical
• Infectious to potentially infectious waste
• Sharps
• Pharmaceuticals
• Pressurized containers

Sources of Biomedical Waste

Hospitals produce waste, which is increasing over the years in its amount and sort . The hospital waste, additionally to the danger for patients and personnel who handle them also poses a threat to public health and environment.

Major Sources

• Govt. hospitals/private hospitals/nursing homes/ dispensaries.
• Primary health centers.
• Medical colleges and research centers/ paramedic services.
• Veterinary colleges and animal research centers.
• Blood banks/mortuaries/autopsy centers.
• Biotechnology institutions.
• Production units.

Minor Sources

• Physicians/ dentists’ clinics
• Animal houses/slaughter houses.
• Blood donation camps.
• Vaccination centers.
• Acupuncturists/psychiatric clinics/cosmetic piercing.
• Funeral services.
• Institutions for disabled persons

Problems concerning biomedical waste

A major issue associated with current Bio-Medical waste management in many hospitals is that the implementation of Bio-Waste regulation is unsatisfactory as some hospitals are removing waste during a haphazard, improper and indiscriminate manner. Lack of segregation practices, leads to mixing of hospital wastes with general waste making the entire waste stream hazardous. Inappropriate segregation ultimately leads to an incorrect method of waste disposal.

Inadequate Bio-Medical waste management thus will cause environmental pollution, unpleasant smell, growth and multiplication of vectors like insects, rodents and worms and should cause the transmission of diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis and AIDS through injuries from syringes and needles contaminated with human.

Various communicable diseases, which spread through water, sweat, blood, body fluids and contaminated organs, are important to be prevented. The Bio Medical Waste scattered in and round the hospitals invites flies, insects, rodents, cats and dogs that are liable for the spread of communication disease like plague and rabies. Rag pickers within the hospital, checking out the rubbish are at a risk of getting tetanus and HIV infections. The recycling of disposable syringes, needles, IV sets and other article like glass bottles without proper sterilization are liable for Hepatitis, HIV, and other viral diseases. It becomes primary responsibility of Health administrators to manage hospital waste in most safe and eco-friendly manner.
Need of Biomedical waste Management in Hospitals

The reasons thanks to which there's great need of management of hospitals waste such as:

1. Injuries from sharps resulting in infection to all or any categories of hospital personnel and waste handler.
2. nosocomial infections in patients from poor infection control practices and poor waste management.
3. Risk of infection outside hospital for waste handlers and scavengers and at time general public living within the vicinity of hospitals.
4. Risk related to hazardous chemicals, drugs to persons handling wastes in the least levels.
5. “Disposable” being repacked and sold by unscrupulous elements without even being washed.
6. Drugs which are disposed of, being repacked and sold off to unsuspecting buyers.
7. Risk of air, water and soil pollution directly thanks to waste, or thanks to defective incineration emissions and ash.

Raw Water Treatment Challenges - Netsol Water Blog

What are the basic RAW WATER TREATMENT challenges and how can they be avoided ?

There can be several challenges that can surface during raw water treatment when industrial companies start treating a raw water source for the different processes. Irrespective of designing a new plant or upgrading existing equipment, overcoming the five raw water treatment challenges will facilitate more efficient process operation. 

The five basic challenges with raw water treatment and steps to avoid them are enumerated below.

1. Turbidity Variation

Turbidity is defined as the cloudiness of water due to the presence of a large number of particles. Due to the variation in turbidity there can be negative effects on the quality of the process and effluent from the plant. 

A consistent set of years’ worth of data is definitely required to evaluate the turbidity levels coming into the plant across different seasons prior to designing of the system. If the plant is designed around the seasonal turbidity flow without taking into consideration any of the changes in turbidity, problems can surface. If the turbidity is too high, then the plant may not remove it efficiently. 

This turbidity gets split over to production and can be present in the effluent discharge resulting in contamination of the process and thus the stipulated local discharge regulations cannot be met. Another challenge of varying turbidity levels is the quantity of sludge that’s generated as a result of treating the turbidity. 

Normally, secondary sludge systems may not be able to handle the overload, resulting in the backing up of the sludge in the clarifier leading to shut-down of the pretreatment system. The best way to overcome this challenge is to design a slightly oversized treatment system for turbidity, keeping in mind the turbidity variations. Additionally, it’s advisable to design a recycle system in the case of the water not meeting the quality parameters as it moves through the process. 

This can be recycled through and retreated once more to be effective. An alternative method will be to prepare for varying turbidity by deploying variable controls on the chemical feed systems so as to adjust the chemical feed rates. There can be an oversized sludge handling system so there is this system that can pump out the sludge in the clarifier filters, if the turbidity does fluctuate, thereby managing it.

2. Flow Variation

Normally industrial companies make educated guesses on the flow rates. If an industrial facility is not equipped to handle these flow variations, there can be upsets to the system which will carry turbidity over and resulting in the plugging of any downstream filters. It is important to understand the peak demand and thereby holding tanks can be used to buffer out the peak demands.

This will help to prepare for drastic flow variations.  Ideally, one has to design the system with an excess flow buffering cum holding capacity so that the plant can be run as consistently as possible. Furthermore, the holding tanks downstream can be used to handle surges in the production needs.

An alternative method will be to prepare for varying turbidity by deploying variable controls on the chemical feed systems so as to adjust the chemical feed rates. The system can be made to balance out more easily and also increase in functionality by using the combination of variable flows on feed treatment equipment as well as storage on peak demands. 

If there is no facility to automate chemicals, then one has to test more often. The plant can be run at a consistent flow rate to avoid  such upsets as well as turbidity issues. Raw water treatment plants may not handle flow variations efficiently, so it’s important to design the system taking this into consideration from the start.

3. Changing of feed water chemistry

There can be seasonal variations in water Chemistry on the surface as well as waters. To handle such variations, the Industrial plants have to take care in the design of any raw water treatment systems to be large enough. 

The problem of seasonal changes in raw water iron or Silica can cause problems. If the clarifiers are not designed large enough to get the proper retention times and if the feed systems are not designed large enough to handle the increased load, then there can be carryover of silica iron into the downstream equipment. 

This will result in problems such as scaling as well as fouling. Furthermore, if the higher seasonal loads of iron

and silica are not precipitated out, then particulate carryover can happen to the sludge handling systems (sludge thickening and filter pressing operations), resulting in their failure. 

It’s extremely critical to understand the variations of the contaminants, feed water chemistry and then design the system in line with that. An oxidation chemical, namely oxygen as well as an aluminum-based coagulant, namely alum will precipitate out the iron as well as silica. These physical chemical processes allow iron/silica to settle so that they can be removed by a clarification filtration system.

4. Awareness of regulatory quality requirements

In the case of plants that have been installed for many years, it is possible that the design of the plant was made for a certain process (designed to deliver a particular kind of effluent quality). However, we need to adapt the equipment to account for changes in regulations, to make sure we meet stringent requirements. 

For instance take the example of feeding water to a low-pressure boiler which then gets replaced by a bigger boiler that runs at a higher pressure. Depending on the new boiler’s requirements, the quality of the feed water to the boiler may be inadequate. 

To ensure that the feed water is of better quality, ancillary equipment needed to be added to the system. That is why, plants should always be designed with forward thinking in mind due to respect to the anticipated future. Moreover, this will make the plant ready for expansion and quality improvement. 

This will allow space in the plant for adding additional equipment which will enable handling changes in the quality requirements.

5. Secondary waste

Ignoring secondary waste (a by-product of the process) is one of the critical mistakes made in designing raw water treatment plants. Contaminants from the feed water adversely impact the volume as well as processing requirements of secondary waste. 

Also, sometimes these secondary wastes need to be treated and discharged, yet many times they are discharged to a publicly owned treatment works or wastewater facility and they must meet the requirements of that facility. It’s best to understand and analyze the regulatory requirements, and design the wastewater secondary treatment processes and sludge handling to meet the effluent discharge of the plant water to the municipality/environment. 

The regulatory parameters need to be followed in advance to ensure that the plant will achieve the effluent goals or discharge norms.

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Working of Raw Water Treatment Systems - Netsol Water Solutions

There is a requirement for some type of raw water treatment system to ensure an efficient process as well as a quality product, for any industrial company that uses a raw water source for its facility.

The most effective raw water treatment system will help the facility to avoid the following:

1.avoid costly plant downtime,

2.avoid expensive maintenance fees, and

3.not being able to sell its products in the market

What is a raw water treatment system?

How does the raw water treatment system function?

The answer to this query primarily depends on the quality of the raw water source in relation to the quality of water needed for the factory.

What is a raw water treatment system?

A raw water treatment system consists of multiple individual technologies which address the facility’s particular raw water treatment needs.

Treating raw water is mostly not a static process. A raw water treatment system that is designed, engineered and built to accommodate fluctuations in treatment needs will facilitate in avoiding costly replacements or upgrades in the future.

An efficient cum well-designed raw water treatment system must have the ability to handle the following:

1. seasonal variations in turbidity as well as flow
2. variations in water chemistry needs as well as requisite chemical volumes adjustments

3. changes in water quality requirements (the quality of feed water needed for a fresh new boiler) 

What are the elements of a basic raw water treatment system?

The list of components of a raw water treatment system will depend on the quality of water being drawn from the source in relation to the quality of water required.

Generally, a basic raw water treatment system shall include the following:

1. chemical feed to trigger the flocculation/coagulation of any suspended solid matter
2. clarifier to settle out the bigger solid matter
3. filtration to remove the tiny particles
4. control panel (based on the level of automated operation required)

Based on the requirements of the plant as well as process, these standard components are normally sufficient. If the plant requires a customized or sophisticated  system, then one needs to add on some features/technologies.

What does a raw water treatment system facilitate to remove?

A raw water treatment system consists of the technologies necessary to remove the following:

• Suspended/colloidal solids: These cause

1. Unpleasant odors in food/beverage product
2. Foul process equipment
3. Energy losses for the plant
4. Silica/colloidal silica: These cause
5. Foul/scale boiler equipment
6. Reduce the efficiency of plant equipment
7. Product contamination

 Iron: These cause

1. coats fixtures,
2. fouls industrial processes,
3. foul tastes/odors in products.

• Bacteria: These cause

1.sickness and severe digestive issues/health problems

2.coating in cooling tower components.

• Hardness: These cause

1.Coating in equipment fixtures

2.Plugs in pipes

3.Scales in equipment

4.Buildup of sludge

How does a raw water treatment system function?

A raw water treatment facility process shall consist of the following steps:

Raw water intake

Raw water is defined as the untreated water found naturally in the surrounding environment. This water can come from several sources, including groundwater, rivers, oceans or lakes, An industrial plant takes in the water from the surface water source.

During this process water is pulled in through pipes or by gravitational force through a mesh-screen/grate. This mesh-screen/gate help to eliminate the larger objects, such as leaves, twigs and fish. The water is thereafter pumped into the main facility where treatment starts.

Coagulation

Subsequent to removal of all the large objects from the raw water source, different chemicals are added to a reaction tank to remove the bulk suspended solids as well as other various contaminants. 

This process begins with an assortment of mixing reactors either one or two reactors. These reactors add particular chemicals to remove all the finer particles in the water. This happens as a result of the combination of these particles into heavier particles that settle out.

The aluminum-based coagulates such as alum and polyaluminum chloride are the most widely and commonly used coagulates. Coagulation of the particles  can also be done by a slight pH adjustment also.

An Insight into Water Pollution

Our seas, rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs are drowning in chemicals, waste, plastic, and other pollutants. Here’s why?and what you can do to help.

While we all know water is very crucial for living beings,we waste it away. Approximately 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is dumped (mostly untreated) back into the environment, polluting seas, rivers, streams, and lakes.

This problem of water pollution is jeopardizing the health of all of us. Unhygienic water kills more people every year than all other forms of “life-killers” combined. As a matter of fact, our drinkable water sources are finite in quantum, Less than one percent of the earth’s freshwater is accessible to humankind. 

In 2050, when Global demand for freshwater is expected to be 33% more than the demand for freshwater as of now, it will pose a greater challenge if we don’t take appropriate action.

Sipping a glass of cool, clean and clear water doesn’t mean that the water pollution is a problem elsewhere. But while some people have access to safe drinking water, potentially harmful contaminants (arsenic, copper, lead) can be found in the tap water in different parts of the world.

To get ourselves prepared against the threat to clean water, let us try to understand the problem better and what action we can take about the same. Let us look at an overview of what water pollution is, what causes water pollution, and how we can protect ourselves against water pollution.

What Is the Definition of Water Pollution?

Water pollution happens when harmful substances(chemicals/microorganisms) contaminate a sea, river, stream, lake, or other water body, degrading water quality as well as rendering the water toxic to humans or the environment.

What are the different causes of Water Pollution?

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution owing to its chemical structure. Considered to be a “universal solvent,” water is able to dissolve more substances than any other fluid on earth. This is the prime reason why water can be easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms, towns, industries as well as factories readily dissolve into water, mix with it, causing water pollution. Read More

Characterization of Water And Water Bodies

How is the characterization of Water bodies done? The characterization is done by classification into three major components:

1. Hydrology
2. Physical-chemistry
3. Biology.

 Water quality assessment is based on the appropriate monitoring of the above three components. 

Hydrodynamic features

The hydrological cycle inter-connects all freshwater bodies from the atmosphere to the sea. The different stages of water ranging from rainwater to marine salt waters make the water constitute a continuum. The inland freshwaters form parts of the hydrological cycle and they appear in the form of rivers, lakes, or ground-waters. 

These principal types of water bodies are closely interconnected. These forms may influence each other in a direct manner, or through intermediary stages. Each of the three forms has distinctly different hydrodynamic properties.

Rivers are primarily characterized by the unidirectional flow of current. This is accompanied by a relatively high, average flow velocity ranging from 0.1 to 1 metre per sec. The river flow is supposed to be highly variable in time, based on the climatic situation as well as the drainage pattern. 

Thorough and continuous vertical mixing is achieved in rivers as a result of the prevailing currents as well as turbulence. Lateral mixing may happen only over longer distances downstream of major confluences of the water body.

Lakes are primarily characterized by a low, average current velocity of 0.001 to 0.01 metre per sec. To quantify mass movements of material, one can use water or element residence times, ranging from one month to several hundreds of years. Currents

within lakes are found to be multi-directional. Many lakes experience alternating periods of stratification as well as vertical mixing; the periodicity of which is regulated by climatic conditions as well as lake depth. 

Ground-waters are primarily characterized by a rather steady flow pattern in terms of direction as well as velocity. These are largely governed by the porosity as well as the permeability of the geological material. This results in poor mixing and, based on local hydrogeological features, the ground-water dynamics can be extremely diverse. 

There are multiple transitional forms of water bodies. These water bodies demonstrate features of more than one of the three basic water body types mentioned above. These water bodies are characterized by a specific combination of hydrodynamic features. The most important transitional water bodies are listed as below:

1. Seas and oceans
2. Lakes and reservoirs
3. Swamps and marshes
4. River channels
5. Soil moisture
6. Ground Water
7. Icecaps and glaciers
8. Atmospheric Water
9. Biospheric Water
10. Fluxes
11. Evaporation from oceans
12. Evaporation from land
13. Precipitation from oceans
14. Precipitation from land
15. Run-off to oceans
16. Glacial ice

Alluvial and karstic aquifers are considered to be intermediate between rivers and ground-waters. The flow regime is rather slow for alluvial and very rapid for karstic aquifers (also referred to as underground rivers).

As a result of the range of flow regimes noted above, large variations in water residence times happen in the different types of inland water bodies. The hydrodynamic characteristics for each type of water body are primarily dependent on the size of the water body as well as on the climatic conditions prevailing in the drainage basin. The hydrological regime (discharge variability) of the rivers form the governing factor for rivers.

Lakes are normally classified by their water residence time as well as their thermal regime resulting in varying stratification patterns.

Some reservoirs share many features similar to lakes. Some other reservoirs have characteristics that are specific to the origin of the reservoir. One feature that is common to most of the reservoirs is the deliberate management of the inputs and/or outputs of water for particular purposes. Ground-waters majorly depend upon their recharge regime (infiltration) through the unsaturated aquifer zone. This allows for the renewal of the ground-water body.

Reservoirs are primarily characterized by features which are intermediate between the characteristics of rivers and those of lakes. The reservoirs can range from large-scale impoundments to small dammed rivers. They have a seasonal pattern of operation and water level fluctuations. Read More

Determinants of Water Quality

In view of the quality of things deciding water quality, and also the good selection of variables used to describe the standing of water bodies in quantitative terms, it's tough to provide an easy definition of water quality. What is more, our understanding of water quality has evolved over the past century with the growth of water use needs and the ability to measure and interpret water characteristics.

QUALITY of the aquatic environment will be outlined as

• Set of concentrations, specifications, as well as physical partitions of inorganic or organic substances.
• Composition as well as state of aquatic accumulation within the water body.
• Description of temporal & spatial variations because of factors internal as well as external to the water body.

POLLUTION of the aquatic environment will be outlined as an introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy that lead to such harmful effects as:

• harm caused to living resources,
• hazards caused to human health,
• hindrance caused to aquatic activities together with fishing,
• impairment of water quality with relation to its use in agricultural, industrial and sometimes economic activities, and
• reduction of amenities

The physical and chemical quality of pristine waters would unremarkably be as occurred in pre-human times, i.e. with no signs of anthropogenic impacts. The natural concentrations could, all the same, vary by one or additional orders of magnitude between completely different drainage basins. 

In practice, pristine waters are quite tough to seek out as a result of atmospherical transport of contaminants and their subsequent deposition in locations way distant from their origin.

Prior to pristine waters reaching the contaminated condition, two phases of water quality degradation occurs. Water quality problems have arisen because of the subsequent phases of activities. 

The first phase shows an alteration in water quality with proof of human impact however without any damage to the accumulation or restriction of water use. Such changes could solely be detectable by continual chemical measurements over very long time spans. 

The second phase consists of some degradation of water quality and attainable restriction of specific water uses because recommended water quality pointers (local, regional, or global) could also be exceeded. Once most acceptable concentrations for selected variables in regard to water use are exceeded, or the aquatic habitat and biota are markedly modified, the water quality is typically outlined as contaminated.

Description of the quality of the aquatic environment can be carried out in an exceeding sort of way. It will be achieved either through quantitative measurements, like chemical science determinations (in the water, particulate material, or biological tissues) and biochemical/biological tests (BOD measuring, toxicity tests, etc.), or through semi-quantitative and qualitative descriptions like organic phenomenon indices, visual aspects, species inventories, odour, etc. 

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Usage of Water Resources by Humans

Water has been used by humans for different purposes from the earliest civilizations to the modern world. Let us explore the different usage of water by humans as below:

Water for drinking and the disposal of wastes

Water helps human beings to complete their life cycles as water is one of the essential components of cells. Rivers, lakes, and ponds were the earliest sources of water for human consumption. Water was collected for drinking and cooking from these sources. Waste was then discharged by humans onto the local land to fertilize crops. Waste was also disposed of ponds and rivers to increase the production of fish. 

These ponds and rivers were located downstream from settlements. Villages got developed followed gradually by towns and then finally by cities when early humans abandoned nomadic, hunter-cum-gatherer life for a more settled existence. During this time hunting was supplemented by the growth of crops. 

Urban planning has existed for thousands of years. However, the consequences of pollution of drinking water supplies and of habitats have been witnessed only recently. Human populations, in different parts of the world, still encounter major problems with their water supply. The provision of clean water to communities has become a prime challenge throughout the World. There is an excess of water in certain parts of the world, while there is a shortage of water in certain other parts of the world.

Water for human transport

Humans have always used water as a means of transport. Early humans constructed rafts and simply-designed boats. These were then used to move on the surface of the water and thus migrate from one place to another. 

These were also used to carry cargo from one location to another. There was a need to explore and conquer new territories after the development of societies. Some migrations on water also happened over long distances. The development of towns and cities happened near rivers, coasts, or on lakeshores. 

Water transport was needed to conduct trade and also to bring in essential supplies, most of which were not available locally. This in turn led to trading and shipping routes of today. However, this is a slower method of transport. Large and heavy cargoes are still carried by sea transport even today. This will continue till the time we find a cheaper and much efficient alternative to fuel required for turbo planes.

Water as a source of providing human food

Water bodies contain prime and healthy sources of food for many settlements. Aquatic plants and animals (vertebrates/invertebrates) have been harvested for a very long time from water. They remain a staple diet of many human settlements. The growth of larger settlements and the development of transport links have led to the commercialization of food acquisition. 

This commercialization has led to over-exploitation of naturally available stocks through the development of marine/freshwater organism farming techniques to meet the demand requirements.

Water for irrigation of crops

Freshwater is required to irrigate terrestrial/emergent crop plants. This freshwater is drawn from lakes, rivers, containers, and impoundments of different kinds. Many rivers also provide fertile alluvium as a consequence of water levels dropping after seasonal flooding. In the case of farming of rice paddy crops, water irrigation schemes use channels and dikes to duct water to crops that are maintained underwater. 

Large-scale irrigation schemes make use of rivers to allow a more regular discharge of water. This development happened as a consequence of unpredictable water discharge due to nature’s wrath such as droughts, unpredictable pulses of water, and seasonal floods. 

This irrigation scheme provides the advantage of extending growing seasons as well as ensuring the steady production of crops. Water is of extreme significance in the deserts where rainfall is scanty, very low, or non-existent. Oases facilitate human colonization. Oasis also helps in providing watering holes for pack animals which are used in trade as well as migration.

Water for driving machinery or generating power

Moving water provides a prime source of energy that can be harnessed to drive machinery or to generate power.

During earlier times, mill streams were cut to divert some river water over a water wheel. This water wheel was used in power rotating mill wheels or other machinery. An upstream lake created by impoundment to ensure a near-constant head of water. This principle was developed for the purpose of power generation with the use of turbines. 

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