Development of a Risk Assessment Model for an Urban Biomedical Waste Management System

Abstract

Indiscriminate disposal of biomedical waste (BMW) is posing a serious risk to humans and the environment. Need of risk-free biomedical waste management (BMWM) system is the prime requirement of any health care facility. However, limited attempts are reported for risk analysis especially for a biomedical waste management system in India. The research reported in this paper attempts to develop a model to evaluate and analyze the risk of biomedical waste management system for Indian conditions. A data obtained through questionnaire survey from stakeholders and experts from the field is used developing this model. A software tool is prepared which can estimate the risk values and analyze overall risk for any biomedical waste management system for any given circumstances. This will be useful to the planner, designer, or administrator handling biomedical waste management system to understand the risk through this system, and help this individual to decide its appropriate strategies, policies, and actions towards prevention (and minimization) of loss, to humans and the environment.