This document summarizes the key points of a seminar presentation on biosafety and waste management in a histopathology laboratory. It discusses biosafety levels and guidelines, practices for ensuring biosafety, categories and classifications of pathological waste, principles and steps for effective waste management, and provides recommendations. The document outlines biosafety as protecting against pathogen contamination and biosecurity as protecting against loss or release of pathogens. It also describes guidelines for segregating, collecting, storing, transporting, and treating different categories of pathological waste.

1. BIOSAFETY AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
IN HISTOPATHOLOGY LABORATORY
BY
MLS. GIFT NNAKA TABAT
A SEMINAR PRESENTED TO THE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTOPATHOLOGY,
ABUTH SHIKA
SUPERVISED BY
MLS. SUFIYANU SANI
JULY, 2022

2. OUTLINE
• Introduction
• Biosafety and biosecurity
• Biosafety level guidelines
• Practices to biosafety
• Pathological waste management
• Categories and classifications of pathological waste
• Principles of waste managements
• Steps for effective management of pathological waste
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• References

3. INTRODUCTION
• Medical laboratories primarily process and perform testing on
human specimens to provide results and interpretation for
individual patient management ,infection control, and public
health purposes.
• Any clinical specimen potentially contains biological agents,
such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites.
• It is therefore essential to ensure biological safety in the
medical laboratory to prevent laboratory acquired infections by
laboratory staffs.
( Sharma et al, 2018)

4. BIOSAFETY AND BIOSECURITY
• Biosafety includes the protective measures against the risk of
contamination with pathogens germs in the laboratories that handle
pathogens or perform microbial test
• for medical or scientific research purposes, as well as means of
protecting the environment and humans against hazard
contaminations.
• It is different from biosecurity which refers to the sum of measures
designed to protect workers ,environment and population against the
loss, use and release in the environment of pathogenic biological
agents.
(Ravikant et al 2002)

5. BIOSAFETY LEVEL GUIDELINES
• Micro-organisms have generally being categories into
risks group, and medical are classified into four
biosafety levels.

6. PRACTICES TO BIOSAFETY
• Limited access to laboratory when work is in progress
• Laboratory coat, safety glasses and gloves required
• Red bags and sharps container required
• Label all equipments
• Biohazard signs posted at the laboratory entrance. etc

7. Pathological Waste management
• Pathological waste ( human tissues or fluids) is define as any
waste remove during surgery, autopsy or other medical
procedures including human tissues, organs, body parts, body
fluids and specimen along their containers.
• According to WHO report 85% of the hospital are non
harzardous, 10% are effective ( hence harzardous), and 5% are
non infectious but hazardous ( chemical, pharmaceutical and
radioactive).
• (WHO, 2010)

8. Pathological Waste management
contn

9. Categories and classifications of
pathological waste
• Biomedical waste in histopathology unit can be group into
two.
1. Infectious waste: This means waste that is potentially contaminated and
can spread diseases, viruses, bacteria and other things that post as a health risk.
2. Non- infectious: This means waste that doesn’t pose as a health risk.
Examples are, forcep, gloves, pippete test tube.
(Chitnis et al, 2000)

10. Categories and classifications of
pathological waste contn

11. Principles of waste managements
• Staff training
• waste segregation at source
• Waste treatment ( disinfection ) at site
• Waste collection and transportation
• Occupational safety
• Final dispose of waste
• Continuous monitoring of the system
( Patil et al, 2000)

12. Steps for effective management of
pathological waste
1. Survey of waste generated
• Differentiate the type of waste
• Quantity of the waste generated
• Determine the points of generation and types of waste generated at each
point
• Determine the level of generation and disinfection within the laboratory
2. Segregation of waste
It refer to the basic separation of different of waste generated at source, and
thereby reducing the risk as well as cost of handling disposal.
Segregation is the most crucial step in histology waste management- the bins
and bags should carried the biohazard symbols indicating the nature of waste
to the scientist, patient or public labels should be non washable and visible

13. Steps for effective management of
pathological waste contn
3. Collection and categorization of waste
Sharps most always be kept in puncture proof containers to avoid injuries and
infection to the waste handlers, and the waste should be handle properly by using
universal precautions to prevent any kind of infection,
4. Storage of waste
Once collections occurs then the pathological waste is tour in a proper place.
Segregated wash of different categories need to be collected in an identifiable
containers. The duration of storage should not exceed 8 to 10 hours at most 24
hours. Each container should be clearly labeled.
( Patil et al, 2000)

14. Steps for effective management of
pathological waste contn
5. Transportations of waste
 Transportation devices include trolleys, wheel barrows etc
 Containers should be tired properly before transportation
 Container accompanied with a signed document by the clinician mentioning date, shift,
quantity and designation
6. Treatment of waste
The main objectives of treatment are disinfecting and decontaminating the waste and also
volume reduction. 5 ways of treating pathological waste include-
 Incineration: typical for pathological waste and never for plastics
 Thymal ( autoclaving) typical for sharps wastes and infectious waste not for pathological
waste
 Irradiation : typical for sharps waste and infectious waste
 Chemical : typical for chemical waste and liquid waste ( e.g stains or cleaning agent)
( Patil et al, 2000)

15. Conclusion
• Safe and effective management of biomedical waste is not only a legal, but
also a social responsibility and as such, pathological waste management
can not successfully without the wellness, devotion, self multivation,
cooperation and participation of all sections of employees of any health
care establishment.
• The need for the continuous training of the staff and for the establishment
of individual and collective responsibility for preventing biosafety incident
and trans pacing biosecurity rules in correlation with the medical laboratory
should be as well emphasize

16. Recommendations
• All concerned, and organization should-
1. Promote sound health care waste management in their advocacy.
2. Develop innovative solution to reduce the volume and toxicity of the
waste they produce and associated with there product ( Histopathology
specimen could be washed with water to remove formalin and then sent in
yellow polythene bags to central common facility)
3. Ensure that global health strategies and programs take into account health
care waste management.
4. Continuous safety for staff and regular assessment of laboratories are
recommended as possible measures to improve the biosafety standard of
pathology department.

17. Some cited References
• Sharma A Biomedical Waste[Managementand handling]Rules.Suvidah Law
House,Bhopha,First Eition .2018
• Chitnis V,Chitnus S,Patil S,Treatment of discarded blood
units;dinsinfection with hpochlorite/formalin veses steam
sterilization..Indian J Med 2013,21[4];265-267.
• Ministryof Enviroment and Forest,Notification N.S.O.6.30.[Biomedical
waste[management and handling]rules,1998.