| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| US: Impossible regulations confuse issue of Ebola waste disposal |
| 2014-10-03 |
| Experts have warned that conflicting U.S. regulations over how Ebola-related medical waste should be transported could make it very difficult for U.S. hospitals to safely care for patients with Ebola. Safely handling such waste presents a dual challenge for regulators, who want to both prevent the accidental spread of the deadly disease and avert any deliberate attempts to use it as a bioweapon. Sterilizing Ebola waste before it is transported is important not only to protect waste haulers but to guard against someone using the waste "for nefarious purposes," said Sean Kaufman, ‎president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, an Atlanta-based biosafety firm. Most US hospitals are not equipped with the proper incinerators and sterilizers to render such waste harmless. This has been known for some time. The CDC advises hospitals to treat items infected with the Ebola virus in leak-proof containers and discard them as they would other biohazards that fall into the category of "regulated medical waste." But the US DOT deems Ebola a Category A infectious agent, meaning it is capable of killing people and animals, and not "regulated medical waste," a category in which pathogens are not capable of causing harm. Waste management contractors who normally handle hazardous hospital waste say they cannot legally haul the material. Already the issue has created problems. When Emory University Hospital in Atlanta was preparing to care for two U.S. missionaries infected with Ebola in West Africa in its high-security biocontainment unit, their waste hauler, Stericycle, initially refused to handle it. Bags of Ebola waste quickly began piling up until the hospital worked out the issues with the help of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the waste management problem has not been resolved yet。 We need some "top men" to resolve this issue. Two years ago.. |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |