One of the solutions was the national teleconference. The link between medical waste and pollution is clear. She is one of six environmental health experts speaking at the teleconference, and one of the earliest advocates for more responsible waste management and pollution prevention in the health care industry. The types of waste that health care facilities generate vary, which can make their management challenging. How health care facilities dispose of their waste from chemical solvents to used sharps to cardboard boxes depends on whether it falls under federal or state regulations, and on the facility's own waste management program.
Some waste is sent to incinerators where it is burned.
Some is buried in landfills. And about 2,000 of the roughly 6,000 hospitals in the country operate their own incinerators, she says. One of Shaner's major concerns is the amount of waste inappropriately incinerated. It's a concern shared by ANA's House of Delegates, which this year passed a resolution, introduced by the VSNA, calling for reduced incineration. Further, the EPA recently issued its first standard regulating medical waste incineration.