My Science School

Water is used to generate electricity in three ways. Hydroelectric power is one of the most commonly used forms of renewable energy, accounting for around 7% of the world’s electricity production. Specially-built dams feed falling water into turbines that drive electricity generators. A similar system controls the flow of water in tidal areas, with a barrier built across an estuary or river. Wave power can also be harnessed by using floating generators that transform wave movement into electricity.

People have used moving water to help them in their work throughout history, and modern people make great use of moving water to produce electricity. No doubt, Jack the Caveman stuck some sturdy leaves on a pole and put it in a moving stream. The water would spin the pole that crushed grain to make their delicious, low-fat prehistoric bran muffins.  For many centuries, water power was used to drive mills to grind grain into flour. People have used moving water to help them in their work throughout history, and modern people make great use of moving water to produce electricity.

Hydroelectric energy is produced by the force of falling water. The capacity to produce this energy is dependent on both the available flow and the height from which it falls. Building up behind a high dam, water accumulates potential energy. This is transformed into mechanical energy when the water rushes down the sluice and strikes the rotary blades of turbine. The turbine's rotation spins electromagnets which generate current in stationary coils of wire. Finally, the current is put through a transformer where the voltage is increased for long distance transmission over power lines.

China has developed large hydroelectric facilities in the last decade and now leads the world in hydroelectricity usage. But, from north to south and from east to west, countries all over the world make use of hydroelectricity—the main ingredients are a large river and a drop in elevation (along with money, of course).

Although most energy in the United States is produced by fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants, hydroelectricity is still important to the Nation. Nowadays, huge power generators are placed inside dams. Water flowing through the dams spin turbine blades (made from metal instead of leaves). Power is produced and is sent to homes and businesses.

The theory is to build a dam on a large river that has a large drop in elevation (there are not many hydroelectric plants in Kansas or Florida). The dam stores lots of water behind it in the reservoir. Near the bottom of the dam wall there is the water intake. Gravity causes it to fall through the penstock inside the dam. At the end of the penstock there is a turbine propeller, which is turned by the moving water. The shaft from the turbine goes up into the generator, which produces the power. Power lines are connected to the generators that carry electricity to your home and mine. The water continues past the propeller through the tailrace into the river past the dam.

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Renewable energy systems use resources that are constantly being replaced. Unlike fossil fuels, they are usually cleaner and less harmful to the environment. Examples of renewable energy sources include the Sun, wind, and geothermal energy (energy derived from heat within the Earth). We can also get renewable energy from trees, plants, water, and even waste products.

Renewable energy is energy produced from sources that do not deplete or can be replenished within a human’s life time. The most common examples include wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower. This is in contrast to non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels.

Most renewable energy is derived directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight can be captured directly using solar technologies. The sun's heat drives winds, whose energy is captured with turbines. Plants also rely on the sun to grow and their stored energy can be utilized for bioenergy. Not all renewable energy sources rely on the sun. For example, geothermal energy utilizes the Earth’s internal heat, tidal energy relies on the gravitational pull of the moon, and hydropower relies on the flow of water.

Context

Renewable energy accounts for 13.5% of the world’s total energy supply, and 22% of the world's electricity. Renewable energy systems are a major topic when discussing the globe's energy future for two main reasons:

• Renewable energy systems provide energy from sources that will never deplete.


• Renewable energy systems produce less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel energy systems.

While renewable energy systems are better for the environment and produce less emissions than conventional energy sources, many of these  sources still face difficulties in being deployed at a large scale including, but not limited to, technological barriers, high start-up capital costs, and intermittency challenges.

It is important to note that the terms ‘renewable energy’, ‘green energy’ and ‘clean energy’ are not interchangeable in all cases; for example, a ‘clean’ coal plant is simply a coal plant with emissions reduction technology. The coal plant itself is still not a ‘renewable energy’ source. ‘Green energy’ is a subset of renewable energy, which boasts low or zero emissions and low environmental impacts to systems such as land and water.

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Oil and gas are carried around the world in two ways — by ship and through miles and miles of pipelines. Oil tankers are usually very large, capable of carrying over 100 million litres (22 million gallons) of oil. Pipelines carry oil and gas from fields and platforms directly to refineries to be processed or transferred to oil tankers.

Advances in exploration and production have helped to locate and recover a supply of oil and natural gas from major reserves across the globe. At the same time, demand for petroleum-based products has grown in every corner of the world. But supply and demand are rarely concentrated in the same place. Transportation therefore is vital to ensuring the reliable and affordable flow of petroleum we all count on to fuel our cars, heat our homes and improve the quality of our lives.

Tankers, railroads and pipelines are proven, efficient and economical means of connecting petroleum supply and demand. Supply-end pipelines and railroads carry crude oil from production areas to a loading terminal at a port. Tankers then carry the crude oil directly to demand-side pipelines that connect to the refineries that convert the raw material into useful products.

Today's cutting-edge tankers are the product of a commitment to safety combined with the power of computer-assisted design. As a result, the new ships traveling the seas are stronger, more maneuverable, and more durable than their predecessors.

The nation’s more than 190,000 miles of liquid pipelines and over 300,000 miles of natural gas pipelines. Who are the primary means of moving petroleum products to consumer markets? Pipelines are safe, efficient and, because most are buried, largely unseen.

The Pipeline Performance Tracking System, PPTS, is a key component of the oil pipeline industry's Environmental and Safety Initiative, a multi-discipline approach to understanding and improving industry performance.

Railroad infrastructure supports the transportation needs of industries as diverse as oil and gas, manufacturing, and agriculture. North America benefits from an integrated railway system that is vital to reaching otherwise underserved markets. Railroads are a safe and efficient means of transporting crude oil and other petroleum products.

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Oil is such a valuable resource because it has many uses. Crude oil (its natural state) is refined into different types of oil. Fuel oil comes in many forms: gasoline (petrol) for motor vehicles; has oil for diesel and central heating fuel; kerosene for aircraft jet engines. These and other oil products can be processed to make chemicals used in plastics, lubricants, drugs and solvents.

Crude oil and other liquids produced from fossil fuels are refined into petroleum products that people use for many different purposes. Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are also used as petroleum products, mainly in mixtures with gasoline and diesel fuel.

Petroleum is the largest U.S. energy source. We use petroleum products to propel vehicles, to heat buildings, and to produce electricity. In the industrial sector, the petrochemical industry uses petroleum as a raw material (a feedstock) to make products such as plastics, polyurethane, solvents, and hundreds of other intermediate and end-user goods.

In 2018, U.S. petroleum consumption averaged about 20.50 million barrels per day (b/d), which included about 1.2 million b/d of biofuels. Gasoline is the most consumed petroleum product in the United States. In 2018, consumption of finished motor gasoline averaged about 9.33 million b/d (392 million gallons per day), which was equal to about 45% of total U.S. petroleum consumption.

Distillate fuel oil is the second most-consumed petroleum product in the United States. Distillate fuel oil includes diesel fuel and heating oil. Diesel fuel is used in the diesel engines of heavy construction equipment, trucks, buses, tractors, boats, trains, some automobiles, and electricity generators. Heating oil, also called fuel oil, is used in boilers and furnaces for heating homes and buildings, for industrial heating, and for producing electricity in power plants. Total distillate fuel oil consumption in 2018 averaged about 4.15 million b/d, which was equal to 20% of total U.S. petroleum consumption.

Hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL), the third most-used category of petroleum in the United States, include propane, ethane, butane, and other hydrocarbon gas liquids that are produced at natural gas processing plants and oil refineries. HGL consumption in 2018 averaged about 3.01 million b/d. The petrochemical industry uses HGL as feedstock for making many products.

Propane, a heavily consumed HGL, is also used in homes for space heating and water heating, for clothes drying, for cooking, for heating greenhouses and livestock housing, for drying crops, and as a transportation fuel.

Jet fuel is the fourth most-used petroleum product in the United States. Jet fuel consumption averaged about 1.71 million b/d in 2018.

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A different mining technique will need to be used according to the depth at which the coal is found. Where coal is found deep underground, a mine shaft is drilled to reach it. Shall-mining is the most expensive and potentially dangerous form of mining. Drift mines can be used in hilly areas, where a coal seam can be accessed through a horizontal tunnel. Oren-mot ix strip mining is the simplest method; layers of ground are stripped away to access the coal found close to the surface.

When it comes to mining coal, there are two processes by which coal can be removed from the ground: surface mining, or underground mining. In Australia, the majority of coal mining is done via the opencast method, although often the method of choice is dependent on certain characteristics of the coal deposit.

The opencast, also referred to as the open-pit method, is the ideal technique when the coal seam is close to the surface. Extremely efficient, opencast mining can recover nearly 90% of the coal seam. In this process, explosives are used first in order to break up the top layer of soil and rock, also referred to as overburden. After the soil and rock has been broken down, overburden is removed and the underlying seam of coal is uncovered. This coal seam is mined in strips by means of drilling and splintering. After an opencast mine has been mined to its full potential, the mine is backfilled and shaped with the same soils that were originally taken from it1. This land can then be repurposed for a variety of uses such as grazing land, a community park, or a commercial site. Conveyors play an important role in the open-pit coal mine, as they help in transporting and loading the coal.

When a coal seam is too deep to efficiently mine the coal from the surface, underground mining techniques are used. The underground method of coal mining currently utilizes two main techniques: room and pillar mining, and longwall mining.

Room and pillar mining involves cutting a system of rooms within the coal seem. Pillars are left in order to support the roof of the cut into coal seem. In a secondary mining method, called retreat mining, coal is systematically collected from the pillars, allowing the mine to close in behind them2. This type of mining can be extremely dangerous.

Long wall mining involves extracting the coal from an entire section of the seam using a specialized machine that loosens up the coal, allowing it to fall and be carried away by a conveyor system. Hydraulic roof move along as the operation progresses allowing the previous area to close in in a controlled manner.

Whether it is underground mining, or surface mining, the use of quality conveyors in the coal industry is imperative to maintaining efficiency. FEECO has been involved with the coal industry for decades, providing superior quality conveyor systems, bucket elevators, belt trippers, and belt plows.

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Coal is the fossilized remains of plants that have been put under high pressure beneath the ground for millions of years. Ancient trees and plants became buried in swampy areas, where the process of decay was very slow. The first level of decay produced a soft, earthy material called peat. As the material became covered with more and more sediment, the pressure gradually transformed it into coal. The type of coal varies according to the amount of water and carbon that it contains. The more deeply coal is buried, the more carbon and the less water it contains, forming a drier, better-quality coal. Coal is found in layers called seams. The lower a seam is found, the narrower it tends to be.

The basic recipe for any good fossil fuel is simple: Mix peat with acidic, hypoxic water, cover with sediment and cook on high for at least 100 million years. When these conditions occurred on land en masse during the Carboniferous Period — especially in the vast tropical peat swamps that gave the period its name — they launched the long, slow process of coalification.

Coal formation begins when lots of plants die in dense, stagnant swamps like the Carboniferous ones. Bacteria swarm in to eat everything, consuming oxygen in the process — sometimes a bit too much for their own good. Depending on the amount and frequency of bacterial feasting, the swamp's surface waters can become oxygen-depleted, wiping out the same aerobic bacteria that used it all up. With these decomposer microbes gone, plant matter stops decaying when it dies, instead piling up in mushy heaps known as peat.

“Peat was buried quickly enough and buried in an anaerobic environment, which happens fortuitously here and there,” says USGS research geologist Paul Hackley. “An anaerobic environment prevented bacterial degradation. As the peat swamp continues to grow, you may have hundreds of feet of peat.”

Peat itself has long been used as a fuel source in some parts of the world, but it's still a far cry from coal. For that transformation to happen, sediment must eventually cover the peat, Hackly explains, compressing it down into the Earth's crust. That sedimentation can occur in a variety of ways, and it swept over many peat swamps when the Carboniferous Period ended about 300 million years ago. As continents drifted and climates shifted, the peat was shoved down even deeper, with rock crushing it from above and geothermal heat roasting it from below. Over millions of years, this geological Crock-Pot pressure-cooked peat deposits to create coal beds.

While Appalachia's mountainous mines tap into some of the country's oldest, largest and most iconic coal beds, American coal didn't all form at once, Ruppert points out. The Carboniferous Period, which pre-dated dinosaurs, was peat bogs' heyday, but new coalification continued long into and after the age of the dinosaurs.

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Despite the harsh conditions of deserts, people have lived in these areas for thou-sands of years. The nomadic people of the Middle East and Africa — the Bedouin —move herds of camels through the desert, settling near oases and river valleys. The Bushmen of the Kalahari in Africa live off the native wildlife and have developed special skills for finding water.

Despite the desert being so inhospitable, there are ethnic groups living in these places; they are groups of people that have to keep moving in caravans in search of places with water and food, defying the greatest risks: sandstorms, silted up wells and loss of bearings due to the lack of points of references. Some of these peoples are the Berbers of North Africa, that include the Kabilis and the Tuaregs, the Bedouins of the Arabic deserts, the Bejas in Namibia, the Sans in the Kalahari desert and the Australian Aborigines.

The Tuaregs

The epitome of life in the desert are the Tuaregs, who for centuries have spent their lives riding their dromedaries along the Saharan tracks. Also called the “blue men” for the typical veils they wear to protect themselves from the sand and the heat, these people live in camps of tents built of dozens of goatskins painted in red ochre ad skilfully sown together by their women to guard all the items and tools of everyday life.

The Tuaregs mainly live on products derived from their animals. Their foods are curdled milk, fermented butter, dates and cereals (millet in particular) from which they make flour. They rarely eat meat, but when they have guests they just have to honour them so they kill a goat according to Muslim traditions. Water is carried in scooped-out and sun-dried pumpkins, whose decorated surfaces hint at the groups who produced them.

Originally, the Tuaregs were a nomadic people, but later on many conflicts and French colonisation pushed many of them to lead a sedentary life and the few nomadic ones that have been left live on the products of their animals and other foodstuffs they obtain through trade and breed horses and dromedaries. They produce handicrafts, for instance engraved silverware; they tan hides, make mats and produce rugs and textiles out of dromedary wool. Farming as well as high-level handicrafts are produced by lower castes, which live sedentarily in the oases. Today, some Tuaregs have found employment in the service sector, especially tourism: since they know the desert so well, they work as tour guides.

The Bejas

If the Tuaregs can be regarded as the “undisputed masters of the Sahara”, the Bejas have always inhabited the large expanses of the Nubian desert. Most Bejas (approximately 1.5 million overall) live in the north-east of Sudan. They are called “Fuzzy-Wuzzies” because of their frizzy hair. For over 4,000 years, the Bejas have been running through this hot country and the bleak hills of the Red Sea in search of pastures for their camels, cattle, sheep and goats. They were feared for the quick raids they made into the rich towns along the Nile. After sacking the town, they hid in the desert of which they knew every nook and cranny and the wells where they could find water, even the most secluded ones. They are valiant and strong people, so much so that they did not only resist the pressures of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, but in the 19th century they even won a battle against the British army, which were much better equipped and trained. Their only weapons have always been: silver-inlaid swords, bent knives, elephant-skin round shields and a very old weapon, the “throw stick”, which had already been used by the Egyptians for hunting at the time of the Pharaohs.

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All deserts form in areas where there is very little rainfall — less than 250mm (loin) a year. While they share many features, deserts around the world form because of varying climatic conditions. Tropical deserts form when dry air drops all its rain at the Equator. Continental deserts are found in areas so far inland that there is no moisture in the air — the Gobi Desert in central Asia is one example. Rain-shadow deserts exist near mountain ranges where all the rain in the region falls, while cold ocean currents can force dry air downwards, creating coastal deserts.

Deserts are classified by their geographical location and dominant weather pattern as trade wind, midlatitude, rain shadow, coastal, monsoon, or polar deserts. Former desert areas presently in nonarid environments are paleodeserts, and extraterrestrial deserts exist on other planets.

The trade winds in two belts on the equatorial sides of the Horse Latitudes heat up as they move toward the Equator. These dry winds dissipate cloud cover, allowing more sunlight to heat the land. Most of the major deserts of the world lie in areas crossed by the trade winds. The world's largest desert, the Sahara of North Africa, which has experienced temperatures as high as 57° C, is a trade wind desert.

Trade wind deserts

The trade winds in two belts on the equatorial sides of the Horse Latitudes heat up as they move toward the Equator. These dry winds dissipate cloud cover, allowing more sunlight to heat the land. Most of the major deserts of the world lie in areas crossed by the trade winds. The world's largest desert, the Sahara of North Africa, which has experienced temperatures as high as 57° C, is a trade wind desert.

Midlatitude deserts

Midlatitude deserts occur between 30° and 50° N. and S., poleward of the subtropical highpressure zones. These deserts are in interior drainage basins far from oceans and have a wide range of annual temperatures. The Sonoran Desert of southwestern North America is a typical midlatitude desert.

Rain shadow deserts

Rain shadow deserts are formed because tall mountain ranges prevent moisture-rich clouds from reaching areas on the lee, or protected side, of the range. As air rises over the mountain, water is precipitated and the air loses its moisture content. A desert is formed in the leeside "shadow" of the range.

Coastal deserts

Coastal deserts generally are found on the western edges of continents near the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are affected by cold ocean currents that parallel the coast. Because local wind systems dominate the trade winds, these deserts are less stable than other deserts. Winter fogs, produced by upwelling cold currents, frequently blanket coastal deserts and block solar radiation. Coastal deserts are relatively complex because they are at the juncture of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric systems. A coastal desert, the Atacama of South America, is the Earth's driest desert. In the Atacama, measurable rainfall--1 millimeter or more of rain--may occur as infrequently as once every 5-20 years.

Paleodeserts

Data on ancient sand seas (vast regions of sand dunes), changing lake basins, archaeology, and vegetation analyses indicate that climatic conditions have changed considerably over vast areas of the Earth in the recent geologic past. During the last 12,500 years, for example, parts of the deserts were more arid than they are today. About 10 percent of the land between 30? N. and 30? S. is covered now by sand seas. Nearly 18,000 years ago, sand seas in two vast belts occupied almost 50 percent of this land area. As is the case today, tropical rain forests and savannahs were between the two belts.

Fossil desert sediments that are as much as 500 million years old have been found in many parts of the world. Sand dune-like patterns have been recognized in presently nonarid environments. Many such relict dunes now receive from 80 to 150 millimeters of rain each year. Some ancient dunes are in areas now occupied by tropical rain forests.

The Nebraska Sand Hills is an inactive 57,000square kilometer dune field in central Nebraska. The largest sand sea in the Western Hemisphere, it is now stabilized by vegetation and receives about 500 millimeters of rain each year. Dunes in the Sand Hills are up to 120 meters high.

Extraterrestrial deserts

Mars is the only other planet on which we have identified wind-shaped (eolian) features. Although its surface atmospheric pressure is only about one-hundredth that of Earth, global circulation patterns on Mars have formed a circumpolar sand sea of more than five million square kilometers, an area greater than the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, the largest sand sea on our planet. Martian sand seas consist predominantly of crescent-shaped dunes on plains near the perennial ice cap of the north polar area. Smaller dune fields occupy the floors of many large craters in the Polar Regions.

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Sand dunes form when sand is heaped up by the desert winds. They do not remain still but are being constantly shifted around by the wind. Dunes form in several different ways, producing various shapes.

Where these three variables merge, a sand dune forms. As the wind picks up the sand, the sand travels, but generally only about an inch or two above the ground. Wind moves sand in one of three ways:

1. Saltation: The sand grains bounce along in the wind. About 95 percent of sand grains move in this manner.


2. Creep: When sand grains collide with other grains -- like clay or gravel -- causing them to move. Creep accounts for about 4 percent of sand movement.


3. Suspension: Sand grains blow high in the air and then settle. About 1 percent of sand moves this way.

 

Once it's in motion, sand will continue to move until an obstacle causes it to stop. The heaviest grains settle against the obstacle, and a small ridge or bump forms. Because the obstacle breaks the force of the wind, the lighter grains deposit themselves on the other side of the obstacle. Eventually, the surface facing the wind crests, and the lighter grains of sand cascade down the other side, or the slip face. This is how a sand dune may actually move over time -- it rolls along, maintaining its shape as it goes.

As the wind moves sand up to the top of the sandpile, the pile becomes so steep it begins to collapse under its own weight, and the sand avalanches down the slip face. The pile stops collapsing when the slip face reaches the right angle of steepness for the dune to remain stable. This angle, which scientists call the angle of repose, is usually about 30 to 34 degrees.

After enough sand builds up around an obstacle, the dune itself becomes the obstacle, and it continues to grow. Depending on the speed and direction of the wind and the weight of the local sand, dunes will develop into a different shapes and sizes. Stronger winds tend to make taller dunes; gentler winds tend to spread them out. If the direction of the wind generally is the same over the years, dunes gradually shift in that direction. Any vegetation that crops up will stabilize the dune and prevent it from shifting.

The fact that sand dunes migrate is fascinating because it makes them seem alive. But their migration actually threatens local agriculture and towns. In China, for example, sand dunes have been advancing upon some villages at the rate of 65 feet (20 meters) per year [source: NASA]. In many cases, fencing will arrest sand dune migration. In some cases, people actually drench the sand with crude oil to stop the movement -- not the most environmentally-friendly solution. Migrating dunes may even collide and merge into one large dune.

More than 90 per cent of men succumb to some degree of baldness. And some women, particularly after the menopause, also find that their hair thins and recedes. The problem is entirely genetic – bald fathers have sons who are likely to become bald. And it doesn’t just affect humans either: monkeys become bald as well.

The exact genetic code that causes baldness and thinning still eludes researchers, but they know it has something to do with male sex hormones called androgens. These hormones suppress the activity of certain hair follicles on the scalp, so that the life span of their hair that grows from them is reduced. Normally, a hair allowed to grow uncut will last from two or six years. But as baldness sets in, the hair in some areas of the head falls out more often. The overall effect is that the hair in those places gets thinner and shorter, until it is reduced to fuzz.

Men have more androgen than women, which is why more men that women suffer from baldness.

One solution is baldness is a ‘scalp transplant’, which is carried out by a cosmetic surgeon. But only some people are suitable. Their baldness should be stable, that is, not getting worse each year, and should occur mainly at the front and top of the scalp. The remaining hair needs to be dark to hide the effects of the surgery. It also needs to be healthy and abundant because it is this hair that will be transplanted. In hair transplant surgery there are no donors, the patient’s existing hair is simply redistributed.

First the patient’s hair is trimmed closely. Then, usually under local anesthetic, circular sections of scalp are removed from the side or back of the head. These sections are 5/32in (4mm) in diameter and contain from 12 to 18 hair roots. Each section is removed with a hole punch device, from as wide an area of hairy scalp as possible, so that the gaps that are created will be covered by existing hair. The sections are then punched into the bald area of the head using the same instrument.

The number of circular sections required varies, depending on the baldness. In the worst cases, more than 250 are needed.

The time taken for the operation depends on how much hair is being transplanted. Usually, several sessions are necessary, because only up to 20 grafts are made at a time. This process takes from one to one and a half hours.

The holes left where the scalp has been removed take about two weeks to heal, and shrink in the process. overlying hair soon disguises them.

The sections of implanted scalp lose their hair after the operation and it does not start regrowing for about three to six months. It can take a further yer or so before the bald area is covered with hair. In time, however, the transplanted follicles may also be affected by androgen, so the transplant is not necessarily permanent.

 

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• Dumping of medical waste in the open or disposal of untreated waste can be dangerous.


• A host of infectious diseases is linked to toxic medical waste while garbage collectors, along with those living close to medical centres, are especially at risk.


• The disposal of untreated waste in landfills can lead to the contamination of drinking, surface and ground water if those landfills are not properly constructed.


• The disposal of untreated waste in landfills can cause diseases in animals as well. Animals may consume infected waste and eventually, these infections can be passed on to humans who come in contact with them.


• It is often found that biomedical waste is dumped into the ocean, where it eventually washes up on shore.


• The treatment of healthcare waste with chemical disinfectants can result in the release of chemical substances into the environment if those substances are not handled properly.


• Inadequate incineration or the incineration of unsuitable materials results in the release of pollutants, including carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) into the air.


• Incineration of medical devices with heavy metals (in particular lead, mercury and cadmium) can lead to the spread of toxic in the environment.


• If safety measures are not followed, health workers, laboratory personnel and transport workers will also be affected.

 

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• As of 2016, India was generating about 484 tonnes of bio-medical waste per day, from its 1,60,000 health-care centres. It was estimated that the country would generate 77.5 tonnes of medical waste per day by 2022. A 100-bed hospital generates 100-200 kg of hospital waste every day, according to a study.


• Of the total amount of waste generated by health-care activities, 15% is considered hazardous that may be infectious, toxic or radioactive.


• Segregation, treatment and transportation, depends on the type of bio-medical waste. Incineration, deep burial, local autoclaving, microwaving, chemical disinfection, mutilation and shredding and discharge into the drains, followed by disinfection are some of the ways that medical wastes are managed in India.


• Colour-coded containers are used for disposal of biomedical waste.


• India’s bio-medical waste management is ruled by the Bio-medical Waste Management Rules 2016. According to the rules, blood samples and microbiological waste should be pre-treated on-site before being disposed of. It also planned to introduce a bar-coding system, where all biomedical waste containers or bags are going to be tracked by the government. This is to ensure that the movement from its manufacturing to treatment facilities is monitored.


• Common bio-medical waste treatment facilities (CBWTFs) are involved in managing waste. According to the 2016 rules, a CBWTF within 75 km of a healthcare centre has to ensure that waste is collected routinely and regularly.


• The ruling also extends to vaccination camps, blood donation centres and surgical camps.

 

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