Main description:

The annual cost of medical care in the U niled States is rapidly approaching a trillion dollars. Without doubt, much of the rise in costs is due to our health industry's concentration on high technology remediation and risk avoidance measures. From recent public discussions it is becoming in­ creasingly evident that to contain the costs and at the same time extend the benefits of health care without national bankruptcy will necessitate much greater attention to preventative medicine. The total cost of waste disposal by our health industry is well over a billion dollars. It is rising rapidly as we increasingly rely on high technol­ ogy remediation measures. Here, too, in the opinion of the authors of this work, it would be prudent to give much greater attention to preventative approaches. Incineration technology has largely been developed for disposing mu­ nicipal solid waste (MSW) and hazardous waste (HW). As a result of the multibillion dollar funding for the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), most experts believe that pollution control is the key to minimizing toxic emissions from incinerators. This view is now beginning to take hold in medical waste (MW) incineration as well. However, the authors contributing to this book have concluded that precombustion measures can be most effective in reducing the toxic products of medical waste incineration.

Contents:

1 Toxic Products of Medical Waste Incineration.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Toxic Products of Incineration.- 1.3 Clean Coal Technology.- 1.4 The UF-T-CCTL Experimental Program.- 1.5 Reanalysis of CHC Data.- 1.6 Theoretical Models of CHC Formation.- 1.7 Summary.- Acknowledgments.- References.- 2 Characterization of Today’s Medical Waste.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Definitions of Medical Waste.- 2.3 Waste Generation.- 2.4 Plastics and Metals Content.- 2.5 Plastic Disposables.- 2.6 Metals Content of Waste Materials.- 2.7 Heating Value of Medical Wastes.- 2.8 Summary.- References.- 3 Medical Waste Management in Australasia.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 The Revised Incineration Policy.- 3.3 Operational Experience.- 3.4 Emission Testing at Hamilton.- 3.5 Comparison with Other Results.- 3.6 Environmental Impacts of Incinerators.- 3.7 Emission Control.- 3.8 Feasibility of Substitution.- 3.9 Alternatives to Incineration.- 3.10 Summary.- References.- 4 Avoidance of Metals in Biomedical Waste Incinerators.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Background.- 4.3 Analysis of Source Test Data.- 4.4 Discussion of Results.- 4.5 Summary.- 4.6 Recommendations.- Acknowledgments.- References.- 5 Relationship between Input and Output.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Regulatory Limits on Emissions.- 5.3 Acceptable Ground Level Air Quality Standards.- 5.4 Chemical Composition of Waste.- 5.5 Component Composition of Municipal and Medical Waste.- 5.6 Effects of the Combustion Process.- 5.7 Absorbing, Condensing, and Collecting Particulate.- 5.8 Effect of Temperature on Control of Emissions.- 5.9 Fly Ash, Scrubber Residues, and Bottom Ash.- 5.10 Effectiveness of Emission Controls.- 5.11 Relating Emissions to Ground Level Concentrations.- 5.12 Summary.- References.- 6 Postcombustion Cleanup.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Description of Air Pollution Control Systems.- 6.3 Effect of Pollution Prevention on Postcombustion Operations.- 6.4 Air Quality Modeling and Health Risk Assessments.- 6.5 Summary.- References.- 7 Ash Disposal.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Research on Ash Leaching.- 7.3 Metals Content of Wastes.- 7.4 Leaching of Metals in Ash Residues.- 7.5 Effect of Furnace Temperature on Particle Size.- 7.6 Variability of Ash Leaching Data.- 7.7 Research on MSW Fly Ash and Bottom Ash Residues.- 7.8 Ash Residues from MWIs.- 7.9 Composition of MWI Ash Residues.- 7.10 Effect of Emission Controls on Ash Disposal.- 7.11 Reducing Soluble Metals and Salts in Ash Residues.- 7.12 Summary.- References.- 8 Polymer Substitutes for Medical Grade Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).- 8.1 Properties of PVC.- 8.2 Combustion Products of PVC.- 8.3 Substitute Polymers for Flexible Medical Applications.- 8.4 Substitute Polymers for Rigid PVC Medical Materials.- 8.5 Estimates of Extra Costs.- 8.6 Conclusions About Medical PVC and Biofriendly Materials.- References.- 9 The Future of Medical Waste Incineration.- 9.1 State-of-the-Art Assessments.- 9.2 The New York City Medical Waste Management (NYCMWM) Study.- 9.3 Retrofit Measures.- 9.4 Regional Medical Waste Incinerators.- 9.5 The Future Medical Waste Incinerator.- 9.6 Broader Emission Issues.- 9.7 Divergent Views on Waste Incineration.- 9.8 Reconciliation by Pollution Prevention.- 9.9 The Declaration.- References.