Medical Waste Handling Practices in the Northern Part of Malaysia

Medical waste management is an imperative environmental and public safety issue, due to its infectious and hazardous character that can cause undesirable effects to both human and environment. The main aim of the study was to investigation the medical waste management practices located in the north part hospitals in Malaysia. The northern part includes (Penang, Kedah, Perlis and Perak States) and most of the hospitals within these states either public or private hospitals were targeted. A questionnaire survey was mainly used for gathering information concerning different medical waste management aspects by identifying training services, segregation and containers, storage, collection, transportation as well as ward attendants.By and large, the way medical waste is treated in the north part of Malaysia is good: our findings have shown serious responsibilities from the respondents towards segregation, collection, storage, transportation, training programs and the safety of ward attendants, although some improvements are needed to meet WHO's recommended standards.

M K Abdelsalam, MSc: A researcher in project management at Universiti Sains Malaysia. He was a postgraduate student at the same university. He has had considerable experience in the field of waste management and specifically in medical waste management. Currently, he is PhD candidate at Universiti Utara Malaysia.He used to be a medical trainee.