Medical waste management in Iran and comparison with neighbouring countries

ABSTRACT

Population growth and increasing access to medical services have led to an increase in the generation of medical wastes, out of which most components are reported to be infectious. Medical wastes include wastes generated in hospitals, dental clinics, clinics, clinical laboratories, and other health-related care centres. The aim of this study was to identify the status of medical waste management in Iran as a developing country and its comparison with neighbouring countries. For this purpose, a systematic method for selection of related articles was performed by defining the search protocol and identifying most relevant keywords in five databases that included one Persian database. We found and screened articles from Scopus, Web of Knowledge, PubMed, ProQuest and Scientific Information Database (SID) (Persian). In addition, Scopus dataset was employed to search studies focused on the status of the medical waste management in neighbouring countries with Iran. Finally, 49 articles covering medical waste management information in Iran and 8 articles in neighbouring countries were selected to investigate the quantity and status of medical waste management in Iran and its comparison with neighbouring countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical waste
• hospital waste
• dental wastes
• waste management
• Iran

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Grant Number 97-04-61-14201).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.