Source: Economic Daily
Staff members transfer medical waste from the Sino-French New City Campus of Tongji Hospital affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Photo by Chu Huan (China Economic Vision)
Huanggang City Environmental Protection Bureau staff inspected medical waste disposal records. Photo by Chu Huan (China Economic Vision)
Safe disposal of medical waste is an important measure to cut off virus transmission routes and prevent secondary pollution. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Hubei Province has strictly classified, collected and harmlessly disposed of the waste generated by designated medical institutions in accordance with standards, and regularly conducted supervision and law enforcement throughout the entire disposal process to safeguard the last step in epidemic prevention.
"Combined punch" to improve disposal capacity
In order to ensure the timely, orderly, efficient and harmless disposal of medical waste, in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Hubei has achieved "one dedicated class, doubled capacity, one plan and one temporary storage library" , Strengthen the emergency reception and disposal capabilities of medical waste.
While the existing disposal companies are operating at full capacity, Hubei Province has renovated and upgraded a number of factories and facilities, which can be used as emergency response units at any time. Huanggang Hongyuan Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Huaxin Environmental Protection Company have completed emergency response trial operations, and the incineration facilities of Shiyan Dongfeng Environmental Protection Company have been maintained and overhauled, and have emergency response capabilities.
During the transportation of medical waste, it is managed by dedicated personnel, collected in time, recorded, stored in categories, transported by special vehicles, and special transportation tools that prevent leakage and spillage are used. For relevant front-line operators, personal protective materials are provided and daily body temperature monitoring is performed to ensure safety.
In addition, the Hubei Provincial Ecological Environment System also regularly supervises and enforces the entire disposal process to ensure full coverage and full treatment of medical waste. Shiyan City has carried out multiple rounds of special law enforcement inspections on medical waste; Huanggang City has inspected the sewage treatment facilities and medical waste storage rooms of various medical institutions such as township hospitals once a day to block secondary transmission.
In accordance with the emergency response requirements of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, all cities and states in Hubei Province have built emergency storage warehouses for medical waste, with an emergency storage capacity of 1,552.6 tons. Wuhan City has built 17 temporary storage warehouses for medical waste, with a total storage capacity of 1,118.6 tons. There are 35 medical waste (emergency) disposal units in operation across the province, with a total of 1,391 front-line staff. At the same time, we actively strive to include the support policies for medical waste disposal enterprises into the provincial government's support for small, medium and micro enterprises to overcome difficulties together, and coordinate the investment of 35 medical waste transport trucks by Xiangyang Zhongyou Youyi Company and the investment of 4 vehicles by Huaxin Cement Company to support Wuhan's medical care for free. Waste transfer work.
Strictly adhere to the last step of epidemic prevention
Collection, transportation, loading... Different from the hospital linens collected in the past, these days Luo Jun collects linens infected by the new coronavirus from dozens of hospitals in Wuhan. Luo Jun is the head of the logistics department of Hubei Renfu Medical Service Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Renfu Pharmaceutical Group. The company mainly provides medical fabric washing, disinfection, distribution and other services.
After the linens were transported back to the company, Luo Jun drove the truck to the designated isolation area according to the standardized operating procedures. After unloading the linens and sorting them with his colleagues, his colleagues then pulled the sorted linens into the isolation area for sorting and washing. , disinfect, and finally disinfect the vehicle.
At Wuhan Jiangxia First People's Hospital, medical waste is put into yellow trash cans with the "Medical Waste" logo, and then transported out of the hospital's garbage outlet and sent to the medical waste emergency treatment system. "All medical waste barrels are disinfected before leaving the hospital and then disinfected after being transported out." According to Zhao Yanni, the person in charge of the medical waste emergency disposal point, the medical waste collected from the ward will be sent to the hospital's temporary storage warehouse for temporary storage. The warehouse has a disposal center and a professional team will transport it to the disposal point for processing. However, Wuhan’s current transportation capacity and terminal processing capacity are tight. In this case, the medical waste collected in the ward is harmlessly disposed of on site through the medical waste emergency treatment system.
Disinfected medical waste barrels are placed in the temporary storage area for medical waste, and emergency treatment is carried out according to batches. The medical waste emergency treatment system includes six links: loading, feeding, sterilization, discharging, transportation, and unloading. From loading to unloading, it takes about 80 minutes.The staff pushes one bucket of medical waste to the loading station at a time. After automatic control, lifting and tipping, the waste is poured into the sterilization trolley and enters the high-temperature sterilization cabin.
sterilization is the core link of the entire system. The reporter saw at Wuhan Jiangxia First People's Hospital that the medical waste emergency treatment system was integrated into the hospital on a vehicle and disposed of at designated points. Wei Bin, general manager of Tus Environmental Solid Waste and Renewable Resources Center, the provider of the system, said that the temperature in the sterilization chamber is above 135°C, the working pressure is 0.23 MPa, and high-temperature steam sterilization is required to last for more than 45 minutes. After the waste material reaches the standard, it is discharged, moved to the transportation station, placed in a sealed plastic bag, and moved to the unloading station. Treated medical waste, like domestic waste, is cleared by the sanitation system and sent to the nearest garbage incineration site.
During the epidemic, the amount of medical waste generated in Wuhan every day was several times higher than before. A number of new disinfection technologies and products became the main force in medical waste treatment. The "Medical Waste Virus Killing Device" jointly developed by Hubei Guanghui Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd. and the Electronic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics uses microwaves to irradiate the medical waste in the container, causing the medical waste to automatically heat up and effectively kill the virus. Kill bacteria and viruses; the "environmental-friendly medical waste incinerator" developed by Hubei Weitian Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. covers an area of less than 10 square meters. It completes desulfurization and denitrification of flue gas while incineration of medical waste, and can process 2 tons to 4 tons of medical waste.
The daily output and daily cleaning have been basically achieved.
In other cities and prefectures in Hubei, the medical waste disposal capacity has been continuously enhanced, and the daily output and daily cleaning has basically been achieved.
"Currently, about 20 tons of medical waste are disposed of every day." Xu Yang, director of Xiangyang Municipal Hazardous Solid Waste Management Center, said that the city urgently approved Hubei Zhongyou Youyi Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. to start emergency disposal of medical waste. The company is a hazardous waste disposal company that uses rotary kiln incineration disposal technology. It has a daily disposal capacity of 30 tons to 40 tons. With the addition of two other disposal companies, it can fully meet the waste generated by the current designated diagnosis and treatment hospitals and centralized medical observation points in the city. The harmless disposal needs, and all medical waste collection, transportation and disposal are completed on a daily basis.
On February 14, the second cement kiln collaborative disposal medical waste system of Huaxin Cement ( Yichang ) Co., Ltd. was successfully tested. So far, Huaxin Cement’s emergency collaborative disposal capacity of medical waste has reached 10 tons/day. In addition to the original medical waste disposal capacity of 21 tons/day of Sander Company and Qiduoyun Company, Yichang has formed a disposal capacity of 31 tons/day, and medical waste can be fully classified, collected, safely transported and harmlessly disposed.
On February 26, Yichang launched a rural domestic waste cleanup and rectification operation. At present, the competent departments of each county and city in Yichang have set up special working groups to focus on the four key points of cleaning, garbage removal, disinfection of facilities and equipment, and collection and disposal of discarded masks. According to the "household classification, group cleaning, village collection, town transfer, "County treatment" working mechanism, carry out village environmental sanitation and cleaning operations, and strictly adhere to the rural "combat unit" of epidemic prevention and control.
Wang Sihai, deputy general manager of Huanggang Longzhong Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., said that the city collects and disposes of medical waste on average about 15 tons every day, which is more than twice the normal disposal volume (7 tons/day), and the volume is more than three times the usual volume. . "The company strictly operates processes and strives to maximize its disposal capacity."
"Although it receives more medical waste every day than usual, the company is operating well and ensures that medical waste is produced and cleared every day." As the only qualified company in Xianning Chen Zhou, production manager of Hubei Huichu Hazardous Waste Disposal Co., Ltd., a hazardous waste disposal company, told reporters that they will definitely guard the "last link" of medical waste disposal as the epidemic prevention work.
