HOSPITAL WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL NNEWI.

Background of the study
Medical wastes are of great importance due to its potential environmental hazards and public health risks. World health organization (WHO) has advocated medical waste as special wastes and it is now commonly acknowledged that certain categories of medical wastes are. Among the most hazardous and potentially dangerous of all wastes arising in communities (Sawale. et al,2009), as exposure to hazardous medical waste can result in diseases or injury. The hazardous nature of medical wastes may be due to one or more of the following characteristics (Pruss.et al1999): it contains infections agents, toxic or hazardous chemicals or pharmaceuticals, and sharps, and it is genotoxic and radioactive. Infectious medical wastes, particularly sharp ones, have been responsible for most of the accidents reported in literature. WHO estimated that, in 2000, injection with contaminated syringes causes 21 million hepatitis B, 2 million hepatitis C and 260,000 HIV infection (WHO,2005). In the past few years, there has been an increase in public concern about the medical wastes management on a global basis (Shine. et al 2008) and a significant effort has been directed toward proper and safe management of hazardous medical waste. However, as there is not yet clear understanding of the risks, and consequences, inadequate management practices are often implemented. Some studies have been conducted around the world to assess the medical wastes management practices (Slivaet al,.2004; Blenkham,2006;blenkam ,2007; Mostafaet al, 2007; and Coker et al,2008). All of them referred that planning and implementation of waste management in a hospital depends on a dedicated waste management team, good administration, careful planning, sound organization, underpinning legislation, adequate waste disposal method.

1.2 Statement of Problem
It is a well established fact that man’s survival on planet earth absolutely depends on the environment. Therefore, unhealthy environment lead to unhealthy human existence. According to NEST (1991) one of the problems facing Nigeria Urban centers is the issue of waste management.

Healthcare wastes without adequate attention and professionalism and must be fixed as soon as possible to save man and the environment from harm. Poor management of medical waste exposes medical staff, waste handling workers and the surrounding communities to infections, toxic effects which poses a serious health problem in most developing countries of the world (WHO 1990). From the research, studies done on medical waste have been carried out in India,
Bangladesh, United Kingdom, Bostwana, USA and Nigeria, most of which are coker et al 2005, 2009 and Bassey et al 2004 etc but no research have been carried out in NnamdiAzikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi, this is the major reason why this paper came up.