Research Article Public Health Risks from Mismanagement of Healthcare Wastes in Shinyanga Municipality Health Facilities, Tanzania

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The increase of healthcare facilities in Shinyanga municipality has resulted in an increase of healthcare wastes, which poses serious threats to the environment, healthworkers, and the general public.This researchwas conducted to investigatemanagement practices of healthcare wastes in Shinyanga municipality with a view of assessing health risks to health workers and the general public. The study,whichwas carried out in three hospitals, involved the use of questionnaires, in-depth interview, and observation checklist.The results revealed that healthcare wastes are not quantified or segregated in all the three hospitals. Healthcare wastes at the Shinyanga Regional Referral Hospital are disposed of by on-site incineration and burning and some wastes are disposed off-site. At Kolandoto DDH only on-site burning and land disposal are practiced, while at Kambarage UHC healthcare solid wastes are incinerated, disposed of on land disposal, and burned.Wastemanagementworkers do not have formal training inwastemanagement techniques and the hospital administrations pay very little attention to appropriatemanagement of healthcarewastes. In light of this, it is evident that management of healthcare solid wastes is not practiced in accordance with the national and WHO’s recommended standards. 1