Hospital wastewater treatment methods and its impact on human health and environments

Abstract

The scientific development and economic advances have led to the identification of many pathogenic agents in hospital effluents. Hospital wastewaters are qualitatively similar to municipal wastewaters, with the difference that these wastewaters contain toxic and infectious substances and compounds that can be dangerous for the health of the environment, employees of these centers, and the entire community. Therefore, in the last few years, it has been emphasized that all hospitals and medical and health centers should have a treatment facility for their produced wastewater so that the health of the society and people is not threatened. An issue that is not paid attention to has become one of the environmental problems and concerns of the world today. The present study focused on the investigate hospital wastewater treatment methods and its impact on human health and the environment. In this narrative study, the first literature search was performed with four hundred and twenty-three articles were retrieved based on PubMed, Elsevier, Web of science, Spring, and Google Scholar databases. The results of this study showed that wastewater from hospitals and medical centers can play a significant impress in polluting soil and aquatic environments and spreading infectious diseases. According to the mentioned contents, collection and treatment of hospital wastewater is essential. In addition, if hospital wastewater enters the wastewater collection network without knowing its characteristics or with incomplete treatment and finally enters the municipal wastewater treatment plant. It causes many problems, including disturbing the balance of the biological system of the treatment plant. Purification and disposal of hospital wastewater is considered a vital action based on environmental standards. The results of this study also showed that the treatment methods of this type of hospital wastewater can play a significant role in reducing the spread of diseases caused by hospital wastewater treatment, including infectious diseases. The results of this study can be very useful for politicians, the managers of the Ministry of Energy and Health and the Environmental Organization in choosing the appropriate methods and process to reduce hospital wastewater and increase the efficiency of hospital wastewater treatment plants.

Healthcare industry waste and public health: a systematic review

“…4.3.5 Contamination of potable water from healthcare industry waste. Environmental quality and public health can be negatively impacted by water contamination (Ram ırez-Coronel et al, 2023). Wastewater from healthcare industries is qualitatively comparable to municipal wastewater, except that they contain infectious and toxic compounds that can harm public health and the environment (Ram ırez-Coronel et al, 2023).…”

“…Environmental quality and public health can be negatively impacted by water contamination (Ram ırez-Coronel et al, 2023). Wastewater from healthcare industries is qualitatively comparable to municipal wastewater, except that they contain infectious and toxic compounds that can harm public health and the environment (Ram ırez-Coronel et al, 2023). Health risk for public health has been reported by numerous studies due to high levels of metals, nitrates, organic pollutants and fluoride in water (Zhang & Zhou, 2020).…”

“…Hospital wastewater management is critical to avoid harm to public health and the environment. Untreated or improperly treated water that finds its way into the municipal wastewater collection system can harm public health and the environment (Ram ırez-Coronel et al, 2023). Different contaminants, such as harmful trace metals, coliforms, and other organic and inorganic pollutants, are found in surface and groundwater sources (Karunanidhi, Subramani, & Srinivasamoorthy, 2021).…”

The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact of Hospital Wastewater on Aquatic Systems in Bucharest

“…The presence of fecal bacteria, including pathogens, in various ecosystems could be a sign of major pollution and a warning signal for public health, especially when bacteria develop adaptation and resistance mechanisms to pharmaceutical compounds, which are massively used in hospitals [3]. Recently, Ramirez-Coronel and collaborators showed that wastewaters from hospitals and medical centers could play a significant role in spreading pathogenic bacteria and subsequently infectious diseases over large areas of the aquatic environment [4]. In addition, hospital wastewaters contain larger loads of infectious microorganisms compared to urban wastewaters, and unfortunately, they can pass and dissipate the bacterial resistance to some pharmaceutical compounds, by lateral gene transfer, to other microorganisms in urban wastewaters and environments [5].…”