Biohazardous Waste: Risk Assessment, Policy, and Management

Issues associated with biohazardous waste have come into sharpfocus in recent years due to public concern over AIDS and themedical waste wash-ups along U.S. beaches and coastal communitiesin 1988. This comprehensive volume covers all important areas ofbiohazardous waste management, from regulation to collection todisposal.

Promoting safe, sensible, and ecologically sound solutionsthroughout, this book
* Discusses risk assessment in terms of human health, persistenceof pathogens in the environment, and how these relate to methods ofwaste disposal
* Deals with questions of policy and environmental regulations thatinclude workplace health and safety and public health issues
* Reviews the medical industry's standards and guidelines fordealing with its waste stream and how they fit in with the EPA'sprogram of medical waste tracking
* Details specific waste management strategies for both majorfacilities and home healthcare
* Examines the available technologies for dealing with biohazardouswaste, particularly incineration and steam sterilization
* Reviews the many alternative treatment technologies, includingspecifics of newly developed systems and procedures for evaluatingtheir effectiveness and safety
* Lists resources and contacts to help keep up with newtechnologies and management techniques, and includes appendiceswith federal and state OSHA contacts and state medical wastecontacts
* Provides many illustrations to highlight the text

For professionals in public health, medicine, and waste management;regulatory officials at all levels of government; and environmentalscientists and engineers, this volume brings the field ofbiohazardous waste up-to-date while serving as an excellent guideand reference to some of the more compelling issues of our time.

WAYNE L. TURNBERG is Medical Waste Coordinator for the Washington Department of Health and an instructor in the graduate program in biohazardous waste management at the University of Washington. A frequent speaker on the subject, he has served on several key national committees, including the U.S. Congress's Office of Technology Assessment's Medical Waste Advisory Committee and the Council of State Government's Medical Waste Advisory Task Force.