Each year in the United States over 716,000 tons of regulated biomedical waste are generated by hospitals, laboratories and clinics. Disposal of these wastes safely, economically, and within environmental guidelines is a growing problem. Commonly accepted methods of waste treatment such as incineration, autoclaving, steam sterilization, and shipment off site, are now targets of public concern and more stringent regulatory control. The EPA new Clean Air Act standards for medical incinerators will likely shut down 80 percent of the nation's 3,700 on-site hospital incinerators and, therefore, there is an urgent need for efficient treatment for medical waste. This proposal concerns a new cold sterilization technique that uses vapor phase hydrogen peroxide for the treatment of infectious waste. This sterilization process offers cost advantages over existing methods, permitting requirements are minimal because there are no gaseous or liquid emissions, it operates at ambient temperatures, and operator liability is minimal. In the Phase I project, a pilot scale on-site treatment unit with a capacity to treat several hundred pounds of medical waste per day will be developed and evaluated.
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