An emerging hazard

Due to the ever-increasing unnatural death, proper mortuary waste disposal remains a major cause for concern. The waste from mortuary is one of the hazardous sources of medical waste and can lead to serious infections to people exposed and create toxic effect in the environment.
Post-mortem assessment and examination of bodies to determine the cause of death is carried out in forensic departments attached to hospital mortuaries, generating wastes in the form of liquid, gaseous or solid. This is now an emergent concern in developing countries such as Dhaka where medical waste has not been properly managed. The individuals working with or who come in contact with, dead bodies are exposed to potential hazards due to infectious agents.
The recently deceased present a hazard due to pathogens, in particular tuberculosis and other bacterial infections, gastrointestinal organisms, brain infections, hepatitis B and C viruses, HIV etc. Mold spores present a great risk to those involved in exhumations.
Other risks to staff include exposure to chemicals such as formalin and alcohol as well as substances whose real chemical nature may be unknown to staff (such as poisons and pesticides) and gases released due to the decomposition of body tissue or from poisoning cases. Moreover, A substantial amount of mortuary waste is potentially hazardous to the environment and may cause contamination of air, surface water, ground water, soils and sediments.
In Dhaka, mortuary staffs mostly worked with manual equipment and none has received training in any aspect of mortuary care and learned what to do by being shown by the senior staffs before them.
Local health and safety policies should be made available to all staffs involved in the mortuary, and should be followed. A system should be developed with the training for special management of these hazardous waste.

The writer is Head, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur.
E-mail: m.patwary@tees.ac.uk