HOSPITAL WASTE AND THEIR IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AND HUMAN HEALTH

Infections from hospital waste constitute the main challenge of protecting the environment and modern human health. For every year, infections from hospital waste have caused high toxicity of the environment and the health of the population, these infections, which affect hundreds of millions of people around the globe and are the main threat to the safety of living creatures. These infections cause very serious diseases, prolong the stay of patients in the hospital, cause long-term disability, increase the cost for patients and their families, affect massive additional costs in the system of environmental and health protection, and often the affected end up with death. Infections during health care are caused by many factors, which are related to the system and process of providing health care. They are also related to people's behaviors that are conditioned by educational, economic and political limitations in the states themselves, health protection systems, and often also in social norms and beliefs. For their definition, definitions of nosocomial infections are used worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control-CDC (Centers for Disease Control) from Atlanta. Health services, including public and private health institutions, must meet quality standards (ISO 9000 and ISO 14000).