Biomedical waste handlers in a hospital are at risk of occupational hazards. The most effective way to protect them from exposure to infectious materials is:
Use of protective equipment and safe handling
Biomedical waste — the waste generated during diagnosis, treatment, or immunisation in hospitals and laboratories — is especially dangerous because it can carry live pathogens, contaminated sharps such as needles and blades, blood and body fluids, and toxic chemicals. Anyone who handles it directly is at risk of infection, needlestick injuries, and chemical exposure.
When we ask for the most effective protection, we should think about the hierarchy of controls: the goal is to stop the infectious material from reaching the worker's body at all. That is exactly what use of protective equipment and safe handling does. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) — gloves, masks, gowns, and eye protection — together with correct handling, storage, and transport procedures forms the direct barrier between the handler and the hazard. This makes it the correct answer, and it is also mandated under the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016.
The other measures are useful but each is only partial or indirect:
- Segregation into colour-coded bins organises waste for correct treatment and reduces mixing, but the handler still has to physically manage the waste, so it does not by itself prevent exposure.
- Vaccination protects only against a few specific diseases (for example hepatitis B) and does nothing against sharps injuries, chemical burns, or the many pathogens with no vaccine.
- Regular medical check-ups detect harm after it has already occurred; they are a monitoring step, not a preventive barrier.
Because PPE and safe handling actually prevent contact with infectious material rather than merely reducing or detecting its effects, they offer the most effective protection.
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Important Questions from Ecology and Environment
The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up in 1906 in:
Buxa Tiger Reserve is located in:
Which day is celebrated as the World Environment Day?
Which Indian products are issued with eco - mark?
Degradation of global environment has not resulted in one of the following.
