Legal regulation of medical waste disposal in foreign law

Abstract

Introduction. The article considers international and national experience in legal regulation of medical waste disposal. The special attention is given to foreign experience and possibility of application and perfection of the legislation on medical waste recycling in the Russian Federation.Materials and methods. Realization of research tasks has been reached on the basis of studying theoretical and practical experience of foreign countries concerning regulation of medical waste utilization. The study is based on the method of analysis of the current regulatory and legal framework in the Russian Federation, the practice of applying the legislation by judicial and other competent authorities and existing European (world) standards for the purposes of legal unification. Study results. In the article experience of the foreign countries concerning legal regulation of medical waste recycling, presented in the works of foreign and domestic researchers, the legislation of foreign countries is considered; the analysis of the sources regulating recycling of medical waste is conducted; various concepts of classifications of medical waste are revealed.Discussion and conclusions. The study showed that polymorphism of medical waste is both an epidemiological and environmental hazard. The problem is compounded by the potential hazards that arise from contact with these wastes, such as toxicity, radioactivity and infection. This is why environmental and environmental legislation is of particular importance, along with health and sanitary legislation. These legal norms should be taken into account by medical institutions when developing procedures for handling hospital waste. On the basis of the above-stated it seems expedient to study the experience of developed countries, in particular of the USA and the European states, concerning legal regulation of utilization of medical wastes as the problem of safe handling of medical wastes is important for each subject of the Russian Federation.