An-Najah Staff

Medical waste generated in West Bank hospitals and medical centers is collected in plastic bags and then dumped together with other domestic waste without any separation. This malpractice usually leads to air pollution and the danger of spreading viruses and bacteria widely. It is only in the last three years that medical waste has been separated from municipal waste in Nablus city and disposed of in a medical waste incinerator In this paper, the type and quantity of the medical waste generated from four hospitals and two medical centers in Nablus City was recorded (on daily basis) for one month. It was found that PVC plastic waste represents the largest amount of waste. A computer reaction program was written to simulate the combustion process taking place during medical waste incineration and to calculate the emission factor and the amount of pollutant emission gases from the medical waste incinerator. It has been found that the highest amount of pollutant emission gases was from burning plastic and glass medical waste. In addition, chlorinated hydrocarbons emissions, such as dioxins and furans, from the incineration process were also calculated using an existing model from the literature. It has been found that the dioxins/furans emissions increase with increasing HCl concentration and decreasing combustion temperature. This con rms the need to control these pollutants from the medical waste incinerator