Medical wastewater treatment methods

Overview of medical wastewater

Medical wastewater is water discharged from hospitals, medical centres or clinics from examination, testing, treatment activities for patients and from daily activities such as bathing, washing, cleaning, cooking, etc.

Medical wastewater causes serious impacts on the environment.

Medical wastewater also comes from cleaning medical instruments and wounds, testing rooms or patient samples. Medical wastewater contains countless bacteria, viruses and various biological pathogens, including patient blood, pus, secretions, sputum, feces, as well as toxic chemicals from the body and therapeutic substances or even radioactive substances. Therefore, medical wastewater is classified as the leading hazardous waste today.

Some patients may have infectious diseases, and their eating and drinking can also spread the disease to the water environment, affecting the health of people living in the surrounding area if not handled properly. Medical wastewater is commonly released into surface waters, coastal seawaters, and drainage systems are some of the common places that receive medical wastewater. The latter contains bacteria and pathogens that represent a potential risk of infection if not treated accordingly.

In addition to basic pollutants such as organic substances, animal and plant fats, and bacteria, medical wastewater also contains other elements that cause environmental pollution such as organic impurities and specific minerals such as: infectious waste, disinfectants, solvents, chemicals, antibiotic residues, radioactive isotopes, etc.

However, it may depend on the specific type, scale and frequency of operations of each clinic or hospital. But basically, medical wastewater comes from two main sources, which are medical examination and treatment activities and domestic wastewater:

·   Wastewater from medical examination and treatment activities: operating rooms, laboratories, clinics and hospital departments

Medical wastewater causes great harm to the environment.

For example: Preparation, sterilization, cleaning of medical instruments, patient samples, laboratories, testing wastewater.

This wastewater contains many microorganisms, bacteria, pathogens, blood, chemicals, and solvents, lips in medicine….

·   Examples of domestic wastewater: daily activities of patients, patient's family members, staff, hospital workers, clinics from toilets, housekeeping, eating, washing, etc.

Current medical wastewater treatment methods:

Medical wastewater treatment is extremely important and can help to prevent negative effects on the environment and human health. Therefore, choosing cleaning technology that is both effective and economical is what every hospital or clinic is aiming for. The quality of the medical wastewater treatment system depends on the treatment technology and equipment used to treat the wastewater. Below are a few commonly used wastewater treatment methods:

Wastewater treatment according to AAO principles

The AAO principle is often used with waste sources with high levels of pollution. The benefits of wastewater treatment systems following this principle are low operating costs, fuel and space savings and no unpleasant odors. This model is installed quite flexibly and can be moved easily. However, the wastewater treatment method according to AAO principles requires highly qualified operators.

Wastewater treatment according to AAO principles.

Using trickling biological filtration technology

Medical wastewater treatment using trickling biological technology is an effective treatment method, suitable for water sources with moderate levels of pollution. The system has quite low investment costs, a simple structure, and can be easily installed. Using trickling filter technology helps to consume less electricity, saving space and being silent. However, this method cannot thoroughly treat water sources with a high levels of pollution, and can create a very unpleasant odor if not operated properly.

Wastewater treatment with biological lakes

This method is commonly used for medical wastewater sources with medium and low pollution levels. The biological pond wastewater treatment method does not require highly qualified and competent workers and not everyone can operate it easily. The investment costs and the operation and maintenance fees of the biological pond wastewater treatment system are low. The wastewater treatment system using biological ponds has the disadvantage of being quite bulky in size and taking up a lot of space.

Hopefully, the information and knowledge shared by FEC can help to better understand the harmful effects of medical wastewater as well as commonly used methods so that you can make the appropriate choice when you need to use it.