Background: Left over medication widely used in hospitals for the treatment of various diseases including malignant illnesses, stand to represent a hazardous form of healthcare waste. According to regulations in the Republic of Serbia dating back to 2009, all healthcare facilities are obligated to separate, label and safely put away said leftover medication, i.e. forward it to authorised operators in order to be securely shipped and properly taken care of abroad. Pharmaceutical waste can lead to dire consequences on a patient's or medical employee's health, as well as cause simultaneous damage to the environment, both work and not. The main aim of this research is the assessment of the state of Serbian hospitals as is, from the perspective of dealing with pharmaceutical waste. Also, the research's objective is to examine the factors that affect the way healthcare waste is handled and the respectful aftermath of their alterations in healthcare institutions. Methods: For the realization of this survey, a special questionnaire was developed, concocted with regard to the margins set out by WHO, in order to promptly assess the management of healthcare waste in hospitals, which had beforehand been pretested. The research was carried out as a cross-sectional study of the representative hospital sample of the secondary and tertiary level of healthcare facilities in the public domain, in November 2014. Results: The questionnaire was completed by 60 hospitals, which typifies a representative number of said facilities in the Republic of Serbia and which covers more than 85% of inpatient capacity within the public sector's network of healthcare hospitals defined by the Bylaw (referred to as the Network of healthcare facilities in Serbia). Conclusion: Tertiary level hospitals, meaning clinical centres, clinicalmedical centres and institutes that offer highly specialized healthcare services and have an admittedly larger number of hospital beds, have a more evolved system of sorting pharmaceutical waste and do away with grander amounts of it on a yearly basis. Establishing a safe and law-abiding management of pharmaceutical waste in hospitals will come to wholly enhance the management of hazardous waste in the healthcare system.
Mining and mineral processing is still a vital source of income in Serbia, due to mineral abundance in copper, lead, zinc, antimony. Copper mining and metal-processing
IntroductionIndoor air quality (IAQ) is rated as a serious public health issue. Knowing children are accounted as more vulnerable to environmental health hazards, data are needed on air quality in schools.MethodsA project was conducted from 2007 until 2009 (SEARCH, School Environment and Respiratory Health of Children), aiming to verify links between IAQ and children’s respiratory health. Study was conducted in ten primary schools on 735 children, in 44 classrooms. Children were randomly selected. Research tools and indicators used for children’s exposure to school environment were indoor and outdoor pollutants, two standardized questionnaires for school and classroom characteristics. In both classroom air and ambient air in front of them we measured, during a 5-day exposure period for continuous 24h measuring: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, indoor air temperature, relative humidity, and PM10 during classes.ResultsPM10 concentrations were significantly most frequent in an interval of ≥80.1μg/m3, that is, in the interval above 50μg/m3. Mean PM10 value was 82.24±42.43 μg/m3, ranging from 32.00μg/m3 to of 197.00μg/m3.ConclusionThe increase of outdoor PM10 concentration significantly affects the increase of indoor PM10. A statistically significant difference exists for average IAQ PM10 concentrations vs. indicators of indoor thermal comfort zone (p<0.0001); they are lower in the classrooms with indicators within the comfort zone. Moreover, dominant factors for the increase of PM10 are: high occupancy rate in the classroom (<2m2 of space per child), high relative humidity (>75%), and indoor temperature beyond 23°C, as well as bad ventilation habits (keeping windows shut most of the time).
Proper Healthcare Waste Management (HCWM) was introduced in the Republic of Serbia in 2007 with the support of the European Union. Since then, the amounts of waste treated, prior to landfill, have steadily increased and more and more healthcare institutions adopted HCWM systems. In parallel large numbers of healthcare workers were trained in proper HCWM. This study quantifies the progress made. The study analysed the period 2009 to 2012 using three methods of data collection. On basis of data collected, it has been established that with a population of just over seven million, Serbia generates between 4,500 and 5,000 tonnes of infectious waste on an annual basis of which some 20% originates from the treatment of outpatients , 75% from the treatment of in-patients and 5% from micro-biological laboratory tests. While in 2009 only one third of this waste was treated prior to disposal, this fraction has increased to two thirds in 2011. The data also show that more than 90% of healthcare facilities have developed individual healthcare waste management plans up from less than 20% in 2009. In every healthcare facility there are at least 2 people trained in healthcare waste management, and in total there are approximately 3000 staff members who received formal HCWM training provided through the Institute for Public Health. Healthcare waste management is continuously improving in the Republic of Serbia and is well established in more than 85% of healthcare facilities. There are still issues to be improved especially regarding treatment on healthcare waste other than infectious waste.
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