Health care industries: potential generators of genotoxic waste

Abstract

Health care waste includes all the waste generated by health care establishments, research facilities, and laboratories. This constitutes a variety of chemical substances, such as pharmaceuticals, radionuclides, solvents, and disinfectants. Recently, scientists and environmentalists have discovered that wastewater produced by hospitals possesses toxic properties due to various toxic chemicals and pharmaceuticals capable of causing environmental impacts and even lethal effects to organisms in aquatic ecosystems. Many of these compounds resist normal wastewater treatment and end up in surface waters. Besides aquatic organisms, humans can be exposed through drinking water produced from contaminated surface water. Indeed, some of the substances found in wastewaters are genotoxic and are suspected to be potential contributors to certain cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of wastewaters from two hospitals and three clinical diagnostic centers located in Jaipur (Rajasthan State), India using the prokaryotic Salmonella mutagenicity assay (Ames assay) and the eukaryotic Saccharomyces cerevisiae respiration inhibition assay. In the Ames assay, untreated wastewaters from both of the health care sectors resulted in significantly increased numbers of revertant colonies up to 1,000-4,050 as measured by the Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 strains (with and without metabolic activation) after exposure to undiluted samples, which indicated the highly genotoxic nature of these wastewaters. Furthermore, both hospital and diagnostic samples were found to be highly cytotoxic. Effective concentrations at which 20 % (EC20) and 50 % (EC50) inhibition of the respiration rate of the cells occurred ranged between ~0.00 and 0.52 % and between 0.005 and 41.30 % (calculated with the help of the MS excel software XLSTAT 2012.1.01; Addinsoft), respectively, as determined by the S. cerevisiae assay. The results indicated that hospital wastewaters contain genotoxic and cytotoxic components. In addition, diagnostic centers also represent small but significant sources of genotoxic and cytotoxic wastes.

Efficacy of Two Cleaning Solutions for the Decontamination of 10 Antineoplastic Agents in the Biosafety Cabinets of a Hospital Pharmacy

“…Several studies have been published on different cleaning procedures for surfaces contaminated by antineoplastic agents (Roberts et al, 2006;Lee et al, 2009;Queruau Lamerie et al, 2013;Le et al, 2013). Decontamination protocols involving sodium hypochlorite were considered effective for a variety of active ingredients, but they could damaged cleaned surfaces (need for rinsing after use) and were potentially genotoxic (Lee et al, 2009;Sharma et al, 2013). Hydrogen peroxide, whether liquid or vaporized (VHP®), showed good decontamination and degradation action on 5-Fluorouracil, doxorubicin (DOX), and cyclophosphamide (CP) (Roberts et al, 2006).…”

Uptake and effects of a mixture of widely used therapeutic drugs in Eruca sativa L. and Zea mays L. plants

“…Pharmaceutically active compounds (PACs) may enter the environment through patient excretions, discharge from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and improper disposal (Sharma et al, 2013). Pharmaceuticals are not completely metabolized in the body and may therefore be excreted in an active form able to elicit a biological response at very low concentrations (Rang et al, 1999;Boxall et al, 2002;Sarmah et al, 2006).…”

Nanoparticles impact in biomedical waste management

“…In the process of shredding the biomedical waste are dispersed or cut into small pieces so that this makes the wastes unrecognizable. It helps in the prevention of recycling hazardous waste and also acts as an identifier that the biomedical waste is disinfected and secure to dispose of (Sharma et al, 2013). Shredding could also be used if the diminution of a waste volume is preferred.…”

“…The waste generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings, animals, or research activities is referred to as biomedical waste (Deb et al, 2017). Biomedical waste is not only generated in hospitals, laboratories, and research activities, but it can also be produced at homes by dialysis or using medicines, insulin injections, and even in rural areas through animal health activities (Sharma et al, 2013; Vasistha et al, 2018). The biomedical waste should be treated and disposed of according to the biomedical waste rules (Chudasama et al, 2013).…”