Investigation on and Protective Measures and Exposure Risks for the People Related to Medical Waste Disposal during the COVID-19 Epidemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19, the production of medical waste increased sharply, which brought a challenge to the capacity of China's medical waste disposal and the protection of the group that received, transported and disposed of medical waste In order to study the potential risks and protection measures against exposure for the workers in the collection, transportation, temporary storage, and disposal of medical waste, ninety staff members from a typical medical waste disposal center in Zhejiang Province were selected as the research objects to study the personal protection level of staff in different types of work, as well as the influence of items or locations at risk of infection on their choice of protective measures The results show that among the 90 surveyed people, 98 9% of the staff wore medical respirators or full-face masks and half-masks during the work, 87 5% of the staff wore work clothes, 79 6% of the staff wore labor protection cap, 64 8% of workers chose to wear rubber gloves and protective boots for protection, and goggles (55 7%) and protective clothing (33 0%) were also worn when they were closely contact with medical waste At the end of a single task, 100% of the respondents chose to wash their hands with running water, soap, quick disinfectant or 0 3%-0 5% iodophor disinfectant or bathe, and 94 3% of the respondents disinfected their personal work items;all respondents would take protective measures such as washing hands, disinfecting items, ventilating after returning home The personal protection measures taken by different staff were mainly related to the items or locations that were exposed to risk of infection during the work process Among them, the staff who were in contact with high-risk items, turnover containers (barrels) or the outer surface and inner wall of disposable packaging containers were more inclined to a higher level of protective measures This research indicates that there is a significant difference between the qualified rate of protection and the type of work for the staff in this survey (P0 05) In the future, more detailed and specific policies and regulations should be formulated, and the management and training of the employees should be strengthened to increase their awareness of prevention and reduce the risk of occupational exposure © 2020, Editorial Board, Research of Environmental Sciences All right reserved