Medical Waste Management in Lebanon and Impact of COVID-19

Abstract

Lebanon recorded 552,871 of COVID-19 cases and 7,889 deaths as of July 23, 2021. Worldwide, there are thousands of new COVID-19 cases being reported every day. The rise in the amount of medical/healthcare waste generated was expected due to the extreme large number of infections worldwide and nationally. In this context, there are growing concerns about the negative effects of healthcare waste produced in hospitals worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Hazardous healthcare waste, due to its physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, has great potential to cause damage to public health and the environment. Therefore, this chapter aims to provide an overview of healthcare waste generation rate and management in Lebanon and an analysis of existing waste management policies and regulations. The estimated generation of healthcare waste ranges 1.0-1.5 kg/bed/day corresponding to about 9.2-13.8 tons of risk healthcare waste daily (about 3358-5037 tons per year). The estimated average of COVID-19 related infectious healthcare waste per month is 39,035 kg or 1.3 tons/day, which constitute between 5% and 20% of total infectious healthcare waste in Lebanon. The current practice of infectious healthcare waste management due to COVID-19 related cases follows the existing policy and legislation such as the Decree 13389/2004 amended through decree 8006/2002, and with the standard operating procedure provided by the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Environment, Lebanon. This chapter illuminates on the impact of COVID-19 on the existing challenges of waste management in Lebanon.