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♤ Industrial and hospital waste is considered hazardous as they contain toxic substances. Hazardous wastes could be highly toxic to humans, animals, and plants and are corrosive, highly inflammable, or explosive.
♤ India generates around 7 million tonnes of hazardous wastes every year, most of which is concentrated in four states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
♤ Household waste that can be categorized as hazardous waste include old batteries, shoe polish, paint tins, old medicines, and medicine bottles.
♤ In the industrial sector, the major generators of hazardous waste are the metal, chemical, paper, pesticide, dye, refining, and rubber goods industries.
♤ Direct exposure to chemicals in hazardous waste such as mercury and cyanide can be fatal.
c. Hospital waste
♤ Hospital waste is generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities or in the production or testing of biologicals.
♤ These chemicals include formaldehyde and phenols, which are used as disinfectants, and mercury, which is used in thermometers or equipment that measure blood pressure.
♤ It may include wastes like soiled waste, disposables, anatomical waste, cultures, discarded medicines, chemical wastes, disposable syringes, swabs, bandages, body fluids, human excreta, etc.
♤ These are highly infectious and can be a serious threat to human health if not managed in a scientific and discriminate manner.
♤ Surveys carried out by various agencies show that the health care establishments in India are not giving due attention to their waste management.
♤ After the notification of the Bio-medical Waste (Handling and Management) Rules, 1998, these establishments are slowly streamlining the process of waste segregation, collection, treatment, and disposal.