The statistics are shocking. According to World Health Organisation, in 2010, unsafe injections were responsible for as many as 33,800 new HIV infections, 1.7 million hepatitis B infections and 3,15,000 hepatitis C infections1.

The main reason for this is illegal reuse of syringes, mostly arising out of indifference towards medical hygiene and in many cases a total lack of awareness that a throwaway syringe once used needs to be disposed off. And that too in a manner mandated by law.

Apart from used syringes, medical waste also consists of other infectious material generated at health care facilities, clinics, dental practices, blood banks, veterinary units, laboratories among others.

And though medical waste treatment technologies are now available, many health centres, including some small and big hospitals, still dispose their waste along with regular solid waste. Others burn it in incinerators. This gives rise to highly toxic gaseous emissions such as dioxins and furans, which can cause cancer and respiratory diseases.

One of the solutions is to disinfect medical waste at its point of generation. As per the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, medical waste needs to be “pre-treated” at the point of generation, before being disposing off. Unfortunately, a large number of hospitals and health centers in the country are not equipped with this technology. But now a new indigenous technology developed by the Society for Applied Microwave Electronic Engineering and Research, and christened OptiMaser, promises to change the situation.

“ By using the OptiMaser, medical waste can be disinfected within the hospital premises,” says Monish Bhandari, Executive Director, Marketing & Tech Support, OptiMaser. “Post disinfection, the treated waste can send to the common biomedical waste treatment facilities for its terminal disposal. Or it can be disposed off as non hazardous municipal solid waste, thus making the management of biomedical waste easy and economical.”

OptiMaser is a microwave-based medical waste disinfection system and is an amalgamation of mechanics, electronics, electrical and information technology.

This innovative technology offers to treat medical waste through an action of moist heat generated by HF microwave electromagnetic waves. This stimulates internal molecular heating, thereby providing extraordinarily high level disinfection at fraction of the cost.

Microwaves are essentially electromagnetic waves that enter into or penetrate materials, creating vibrations amongst all dipole molecules of mass.

The OptiMaser is receiving a good response from different medical colleges and hospitals. “It is installed at AIIMS, BSF Hospitals, National Institute of Virology, Pune, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow and other reputed hospitals across the country,” informs Bhandari.

And what about the cost? That depends on variants chosen from the three available. The price ranges from ₹12.5 lakh to ₹25 lakh.

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