HFHW are hazardous when their management methods allow humans or animals to come into direct contact with them or indirectly to be affected through the food chain, into which they will enter from the soil or groundwater. Such methods are:
- Mixing with municipal waste, transportation by local government waste trucks or by a non-specially licensed carrier and uncontrolled final disposal in a Waste Disposal Site or a Sanitary Landfill.
- Uncontrolled combustion resulting in releases of gaseous pollutants and heavy metals.
- Storage or transportation in non-refrigerated conditions and outside certified packaging that favor the proliferation of microorganisms.
Everyone is at risk from the irrational management of HFHW.
Hazardous waste from healthcare units is divided into:
A. Purely Infectious Hazardous Waste (PIHW)
Purely Infectious Hazardous Waste (PIHW) is that which exhibits only the hazardous property H9 according to Annex III of Article 60 of Law 4042/2012. It is waste whose collection and disposal are subject to special requirements in relation to the prevention of contamination. This waste contains potentially pathogenic organisms (bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi) in concentrations or quantities capable of causing disease.
B. Mixed Hazardous Waste (MHW)
Mixed Hazardous Waste (MHW) is that which exhibits the hazardous property H9 simultaneously with one or more hazardous properties according to Annex III of Article 60 of Law 4042/2012. These wastes contain toxic substances in combination with infectious agents.
MHW also includes anatomical wastes, originating from pathological laboratories such as tissues, organs and body parts that are not identifiable as well as experimental animals. The same category includes wastes from the development of research activities and microbiological-biochemical tests such as plates, culture dishes and other media used in microbiology and which have been contaminated by pathogenic agents. Finally, MHWs are characterized as wastes from pathological and other departments where chemotherapy is performed such as used serum packages with cytostatic drugs from patients undergoing chemotherapy. Wastes that include some or all of the above, without it being possible to separate them from the infectious agents (e.g. tissues and syringes from patients undergoing chemotherapy) are included in MHWs.
C. Other Hazardous Waste (OHW)
Other Hazardous Waste (OHW) is any waste that exhibits at least one hazardous property other than H9. These wastes contain toxic substances.