IWWG Task Group on
HOSPITAL WASTE
Chair: Susanne Mahnik
Aims
The Task Group on Hospital Waste aims to coordinate interdisciplinary research on the appropriate collection and disposal of waste from medical institutions. It is intended to provide an intellectual forum to discuss problems of the past, and create solutions for the future. The idea for the Task Group emerged from an acknowledged need among participants at the Workshop on Hospital Waste during the Sardinia 2007 Symposium.
The Task Group should include both academic and industrial researchers and scientists, joining scientific research and practical experience.
Member expertise will encompass a broad range of disciplines, including waste management, hygiene in medical institutions, microbiology, chemistry, waste technologies, environmental law and waste law.
The main aim of the Task Group on Hospital Waste will be an international and interdisciplinary exchange in the collection, the disposal and the management of waste from medical institutions.
This covers the following:
Creation of a database on the ‘‘state of the art” (legal base, waste amounts, ways of collection in hospitals and disposal of clinical waste, etc.) in the different countries.
Finding of basic differences and needs in the varying countries, which the task group should deal first with.
Perception of potentials for optimization and derivation of selected projects, elaboration of the projects in the different countries and combination and publication of the results.
The Task Group will provide a forum for members to discuss and exchange ideas, generate hypotheses, and jointly consider and relate results and findings from diverse projects.
By fostering international and interdisciplinary communication and pooling data, research advances can be accelerated, and future research requirements identified and synthesized more effectively.
As research efforts are coordinated and new results are generated, the Group will serve as a clearinghouse and point of contact for those seeking information on waste management from medical institutions. Furthermore, collaborations from within the Group will be published in international journals, so that ready access to information is available to the research community.
Susanne Mahnik - Chair of the Hospital Waste IWWG Task Group
The Task Group will be chaired by Susanne Mahnik, from the company ‘‘VAMED-KMB”, based in Vienna, Austria. Previously she worked as a scientific employee at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna from 2003 to 2005.
She is head of the Department for Environmental and Hazardous Goods Management, with a main focus on the Vienna University Hospital, but also other medical institutions in Austria. She is member of the Austrian Association for Environment and Hospital Waste Management and gives lectures on waste management in medical institutions and hazards of hospital waste waters due to pharmaceutical residues. She specialises in all aspects of Hospital Waste Management and hazards due to pharmaceuticals in the environment and is the author of several articles in English and German.
The first official meeting of the Task Group has been held in the context of the Twelfth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium SARDINIA 2009, which took place in S. Margherita di Pula, Sardinia, Italy, between October 5th–9th 2009.
Chair and contact person:
Dr. Susanne Mahnik
Department for Environmental and Hazardous Goods Management
VAMED-KMB Technical Operation and Management Ltd.
Spitalsgasse 23, 1090 Vienna, Austria
E-mail: susanne.mahnik@vamed.com
Phone: +43 1 404009467 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting
website: www.vamed.com