DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i04.001

Pages: 1379-1386

Biomedical waste is hazardous to both humans and environment and is generated on a daily basis in almost all the laboratories. Minimization in production and appropriate disposal is equally important. The Ministry of Environment issued a notification on Biomedical Waste Management and Handling 1998 which dictated certain guidelines to manage and dispose of the biomedical waste. The purpose of this study is to see the level of awareness among laboratory technicians regarding biomedical waste as they handle and dispose most of the waste generated on a daily basis and play a key role in its management. This is a prospective cross sectional study conducted amongst a total of 36 laboratory technicians in Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur, India. A predesigned questionnaire was used in order to asses technician’s knowledge on different variables like color coding, occupational injuries etc. Statistical analysis was done and percentage and average score were calculated and shown graphically. The response to the study was good and all the technicians had a sound knowledge regarding the waste handling techniques and the potency of waste. Still there was a slight need of awareness in fields like occupational injury, condition of bags, waste segregation and transport protocols and special waste management teams. A lot of them did not receive any special training before joining the institute. They did attend training programs after joining. The study also shows that technicians working for 11-20 years were fully aware about the biomedical waste management and the ones working since 21-30 years had not updated their knowledge or work technique while those working since 1-10 years also were unaware about many factors. The level of awareness of a technician is 96.4167%.All the technicians had sound knowledge regarding biomedical waste but they lacked training and were not updated or oriented. Training programs are necessary in order to create proper awareness.