2

Question 1

• Hazardous nature of healthcare waste may be due to one or more of the following
  characteristics:

Answer 1

It contains needles and other sharps

It contains infectious agents

– It contains genotoxic or cytotoxic agents
– It contains toxic or hazardous chemicals or
pharmaceuticals

– It is radioactive

Question 2

What is Risk?

Answer 2

It is probability that
the hazard of a substance will cause harm and
the severity of that harm

Question 3

Harm what ?

Answer 3

Individuals,
cleaning staff,
public health
the environment
are exposed to the risks from HCW

Question 4

Persons at Risk

Answer 4

• Medical doctors
• Nurses
• Patients
• Visitors
• HC support
  services (laundry, waste
  handlers, cleaners, and
  porters)
  HC auxiliaries
• Hospital maintenance
  personnel
• Workers transporting the
  waste to a treatment and
  disposal facility
• Workers in waste
  management facilities,
  such as landfills or
  incinerators
• Scavengers
• Communities exposed to
  landfills, dump yards,
  improper disposal

Question 5

Effects of Exposure to Healthcare Waste

Question 6

Infectious Waste Including Sharps

Answer 6

Infectious waste should
always be assumed to
contain pathogenic
microorganisms

Question 7

Routes of exposure
include:

Answer 7

Through puncture,
abrasion, or cut in the skin
– Through the mucous
membrane
– By inhalation
– By ingestion

Question 8

Chain of Infection diagram

Question 9

Common Pathogens and Routes of
Transmission