Climatic, Environmental and Health Impacts of Disused Coronavirus Protective Equipment: Towards Effective Regulatory and Containment Measures.

ABSTRACT

Though global health care delivery systems have been under inevitable pressure and risks from the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, our natural human environment is also increasingly threatened. The reason is that efforts to contain the pandemic have resulted in a vast generation of medical waste from disused personal protective equipment, such as facemasks, face-shields, hand-gloves, hand-sanitisers, and related single-use products. Unprofessional management of medical waste can result in environmental contagion. This article, adopting an analytical approach, argues that COVID-19 waste represents a mode of contagion, and hence demands special regulatory attention, management, and disposal procedures at all levels of governance. The article offers an epidemiological perspective on COVID-19 waste and its place in medical waste. It provides insights into the best practices for managing COVID-19 waste and examines how global objectives and frameworks visibly support COVID-19 medical waste management globally.