A Study of Waste Water Treatment of Microbiological Laboratories of Hospitals by Electrolyzed Oxidized Water

Abstract

Hospital liquid infectious waste is one of the most important aspects of water contamination. The present investigation was undertaken to evolve a cost effective alternate method of waste water treatment by using Oxidized Water as a disinfectant for hospital effluents. Liquid infectious waste coming from diagnostic laboratories of hospitals (Urine, Blood and Mix of both) was treated with electrolyzed Oxidized Water. Different v/v ratios (95:5, 85:15, 75:25, 50:50 and 25:75) of Sample to Electrolyzed Oxidized Water (EOW) were cultured and incubated at 37 o C for 24 hours. EOW showed a direct relationship with the decontamination of inorganic urine but for blood, an unidentified pattern was observed that may be due to change in pH and/or Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) of EOW because of organic nature of blood. The most effective ratio of sample to EOW, at which decontamination was found to be maximum for urine, was 25:75 with treatment efficiency of 96.15 % and 85:15 with treatment efficiency of 84.8 % for blood. The study revealed that Electrolyzed Oxidized Water may be used as a better alternative for treatment of liquid infectious waste.