ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2019 | Volume
: 17 | Issue : 2 | Page : 136--140
Dental health-care waste management among dentists of Nellore City - A cross-sectional study
Swati Gurusamy Naidu, V Chandra Sekhara Reddy, R V. S. Krishna Kumar, KM Sudhir, G Srinivasulu, Deepthi Athuluru
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Narayana Dental College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Swati Gurusamy Naidu
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Narayana Dental College and Hospital, Chintareddypalem, Nellore - 524 003, Andhra Pradesh
India
Background: Waste produced in the course of health-care activities carries a higher potential for infection and injury than any other type of waste. Hence, to avoid the hazards caused by hospital waste, the Government of India issued notification on bio-medical waste (BMW) (management and handling) Rules 1998 which was amended in 2016 under Environment (protection) Act. These new rules fill up the gaps in the old rules to regulate disposal of various categories of BMW. Aim: To assess the awareness and practices toward dental health-care waste management among dentists of Nellore city. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study in Nellore City was conducted among 204 private dental practitioners using a close ended questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed in the dental clinics by the investigator and collected back the same or consecutive day. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA). Chi-square test was used, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study results showed that there was no statistically significant association between the responses by dentists on majority of the questions relating to BMW Management and Handling rules. 86.6% of clinicians and 78.1% of academicians responded that they were aware of the BMW rules. 87.8% and 84.4% of clinicians and academicians, respectively, were aware of different categories of waste, whereas 97.1% and 93.8%, respectively, reported that they knew about different color codings of BMW and these responses were not statistically significant (P = 0.05). Majority of the dentists (85.3%) were aware of the category of wastes, but not aware of the color coding followed for the same. Majority of the respondents did not segregate the waste generated in their working place, 85.8% used chair side bins for disposal. Conclusion: Though most of the dentists were aware of the BMW management rules, majority of them practiced inappropriate waste disposal techniques.
How to cite this article:
Naidu SG, Reddy V C, Kumar R V, Sudhir K M, Srinivasulu G, Athuluru D. Dental health-care waste management among dentists of Nellore City - A cross-sectional study.J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent 2019;17:136-140
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How to cite this URL:
Naidu SG, Reddy V C, Kumar R V, Sudhir K M, Srinivasulu G, Athuluru D. Dental health-care waste management among dentists of Nellore City - A cross-sectional study. J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent [serial online] 2019 [cited 2023 Sep 30 ];17:136-140
Available from: https://journals.lww.com/aphd/pages/default.aspx/article.asp?issn=2319-5932;year=2019;volume=17;issue=2;spage=136;epage=140;aulast=Naidu;type=0 |
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