Masum A. Patwary

Medical Waste: an Emerging Environmental Threat in Developing Countries Masum A. Patwary

Man may be unintentionally contaminating his environment but in doing so he threatens the future of generations yet to reach maturity or even be born. The threat could not be more evident than in the failure to address the issue of appropriate disposal of medical waste in avoidance of contamination. Although the disposal of waste is a worldwide concern, this book will focus on the pollution hazards created through the dumping of medical wastes, including toxic chemicals and heavy metals, in heavily populated urban areas of developing countries. It will consider the effects on the communities around the dump sites in developing countries such as Bangladesh. It is intended that this book will help to further understanding of the short term, medium term and long term problems relating to failures in medical waste management in these developing countries. Research into the issue of poor medical waste management in developing countries and the prevention of contamination from this type of waste requires further attention and the case studies within this text provide the foundation from which to build and provide valuable insight in the prevention of bad practice in the future.