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University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila

EE I
Mid Term Exam

Submitted to:
Sir Naeem Ejaz

Submitted by:
Asad ur Rahman (18-CE-154)

Section:
B

Dated:18th April, 2021

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Contents

Abstract.....................................................................................................................3
Keywords...................................................................................................................3
Introduction...............................................................................................................4
Literature Review......................................................................................................4
Type of Pollutants in Hospital Industries..................................................................4
Energy Efficient Hospitals..........................................................................................6
Management of Pollutants........................................................................................6
Water usage in Hospitals...........................................................................................8
Environmental Management Plan.............................................................................8
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................11
References:..............................................................................................................12

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MID PAPER
1
Naeem Ejaz, 2 Asad ur Rahman
1
Professor, 2 Student
University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila.

Abstract
In this report, we will study our DHQ which is DHQ Dadyal Mirpur AJK. We
will discuss about the pollutants being produced in the hospital. Also to convert
the hospital in an energy efficient building.
We will also study the water consumption of hospital and ways to minimize
it. Also producing a short environmental management plan.

Keywords
DHQ Dadyal, Pollutants in Hospitals, Water consumption in hospital,
Energy Efficient Building, Environmental Management Plan.

Introduction
Medical hospitals are facilities that engage in providing general medical,
surgical, and specialty services. Equipment breakage and waste incineration may

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release pollutants into the air and may contribute to health concerns in hospitals
and in the community.
Clinics can radiate unsafe air poisons (HAPs) like mercury and dioxin. These
toxins can add to medical issues that may influence workers, patients, their
families, and the local area. While Federal, state, nearby, and Tribal guidelines
limit the measure of discharges from emergency clinics, risky arrivals of HAPs can
happen if a medical clinic doesn't work in consistence with guidelines.

Literature Review
I studied many papers most A review of the chemical and biological
pollutants in indoor air in hospitals and assessing their effects on the health of
patients, staff and visitors, and many others, they helped a lot in the help to
control this situation in our DHQ.

Type of Pollutants in Hospital Industries

In hospitals every type of wastes is produced
 Air Pollutants
 Water Pollutants
 Soil Pollutants
 Solid Wastes
 etc
Mercury can be used in thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, thermostats,
fluorescent lights, and other products found in hospitals. At room temperature,
elemental mercury is a liquid and emits toxic vapors, which can be inhaled into
the lungs and absorbed into the blood stream. Mercury is very toxic to humans. It
impacts the kidneys, liver, respiratory system, and central nervous system.
When emitted indoors, mercury will eventually leak into the outdoor air
through doors, ventilation systems, and other openings. It can also reach outdoor
air through the incineration of mercury-containing products.

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It is assumed that the antiseptic effect of disinfectants in effluents from

hospitals can severely disturb the growth of microorganisms in the different
stages of aeration of sewage plants. Regular biological catabolism could therefore
be damaged. The impact of substances on the waste water depends on the
concentration of disinfectants they contain.
Consequently, this essay first examines the expected quantities of
antiseptic substances in the effluent of a medium-sized hospital (440 Beds). The
effluents treated here however showed a low concentration of disinfectants and
it could be proved that these quantities do not have any harmful effects on the
examined parameters such as BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical
Oxygen Demand) and pH-value.
For most hospitals the largest components of the solid waste stream are
paper (especially cardboard, mixed paper, newspapers, and high-grade paper),
food waste, and disposable linens (a combination of paper and other materials),
plastics (especially film plastic) diapers, and glass. Yard trimmings may also be a
significant percentage of the waste stream if a hospital has a large landscaped
area.
A survey of nine California hospitals in 1990 showed the following average
breakdown of solid wastes:
 paper – 53.8%
 food and other organics – 17.5%
 plastic – 14.6%
 diapers – 3.5%
 glass – 1.8%
 yard trimmings – 1.6%
 other – 4.5%
Solid waste quantity depends heavily on the size of the facility and for
hospitals is often expressed as pounds per bed-year. Another California study
indicated that hospitals might be expected to generate 16 pounds per bed-day, or
5,840 pounds per bed-year.
More recently, hospitals have demonstrated that they can do significantly
better than that -- one facility with over 350 staffed beds reported just over 10

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pounds per bed-day, or less than 4,000 per bed-year. Smaller facilities generally
find it harder to meet similar targets, but improvements can result in significant
savings, and are typically well worth the effort.

Energy Efficient Hospitals

Energy savings and the environment are also high on the political agenda.
Nowadays, the discussions about sustainable design are of top priority, and along
with the global environmental crisis, they influence hospital design. Sustainable
design seeks to reduce the negative impacts on the environment and improve
health and comfort for the building occupants by improving the building’s
performance. In this context, the future viability of hospital as a building type is
being re-evaluated. According to the WHO, the ideal quest at present is the
creation of the “zero waste hospital”. A tendency towards basic, archetypical
design rules in modern healthcare buildings that focus on the building’s
relationship to the natural environment; these design attempts have also great
advantages to the healing environment of the hospital.
Hospital buildings are usually large and complexes buildings that operates
continuously for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that consume energy on a
large scale in different ways. Hospitals have high bills of electricity and fuel. An
effective energy management is required to implement energy efficiency
measures for energy savings without affecting the quality of service, in particular
patient comfort and quality patient care. The energy saving measures analyzed
involves lifts, chillers, lighting and building envelope.

Management of Pollutants
Keep careful track of the inventory of materials you have on hand in the
hospital for future use. Avoid overstocking items that have limited lifespans, as
these will need to be disposed of.
 Perform quarterly inventory checks to look for items that are close to the
end of their lifespans.
 A computerized inventory system will make this task much easier.

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 Consider limiting access to materials to prevent waste.

 Be careful to always store materials according to the manufacturer's
recommendations to avoid damaging the product.
Recycling as many materials as possible will go a long way in helping you reduce
waste. Make sure your staff knows what products are recyclable and how to
recycle them.
 Whenever possible, store materials in reusable containers that can be
refilled by your distributor.
 Some distributors will allow you to return containers used to store
radioactive isotopes.
 You can sell items like metal drums, wood pallets, and used and spoiled film
to recyclers.
 Certain chemicals, such as formaldehyde, can be reused.
 Consider purchasing refillable ink cartridges for your printers.
 If you do not have sufficient volume of recyclable materials, consider
working with other local hospitals to create a shared recycling area.
 Consider composting waste from your cafeteria, and even using
compostable plates
Some materials create more waste than others, so be sure to consider the
environmental impact of all of the materials used by the hospital. It may not
always be possible to use a greener alternative, but do so whenever you can.
Some materials to avoid whenever feasible are:
 Aerosol cans
 Non-rechargeable batteries
 Any construction materials (flooring, countertops, etc.) that are not resistant
to solvents
 Cleaning products that contain zinc, tributyl tin, phenolics, or chromium
 Oil-based paints
 Chlorinated solvents
 Equipment that contains mercury
Do a thorough review of all routine procedures performed in your hospital and
look for areas where material usage can be decreased. For example, employees
may be filling containers with more of certain solutions than necessary.

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 In some cases, you may be able to solve this problem with training, but in
other cases you may need to reevaluate the size of the containers provided.

Water usage in Hospitals

Commercial and institutional buildings use a large portion of municipally
supplied water in the United States. With so many businesses making up the
commercial and institutional sector, there are great opportunities to conserve
water. Water Sense at Work: Best Management Practices for Commercial and
Institutional Facilities promotes water-efficient techniques that can be applied
across a wide range of facilities with varying water needs. Water used in hospitals
and other health care facilities comprises 7 percent of the total water use in
commercial and institutional facilities in the United States.1 The largest uses of
water in hospitals are cooling equipment, plumbing fixtures, landscaping, and
medical process rinses.
Hospital facility managers can benefit from employing water-efficient
practices through operational improvements and upgraded equipment. For
example, high-performing equipment and fixtures are now available that use at
least 20 percent less water than standard models. To increase savings beyond
utility bills, hospital facility managers can take advantage of financial incentives
for installing water-efficient equipment. Many local utilities offer rebates for
taking on water-saving projects, allowing equipment upgrades to pay for
themselves.

Environmental Management Plan

It is critical that your entire staff know how to handle and dispose of hazardous
materials. If the staff is thoroughly trained, it reduces the risk of contamination of
other patients.
 Consider hanging informational posters around your hospital that explain
how to dispose of different types of waste.
 Using red "hazardous material" bags or canisters for appropriate waste will
cut down on the accidental handling of hazardous and potentially dangerous
material.

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 Having separate disposal containers for hazardous wastes also reduces the
unnecessary use of these containers for nonhazardous materials.
 Store hazardous materials away from nonhazardous materials to avoid
contamination.
 Always keep radioactive materials segregated, centrally processed, and
properly labelled
In case of a spill, handle it properly to avoid contaminating the surrounding area.
You should also be proactive in preventing spills and leaks whenever possible.
 You should create a spill containment system around your storage area to
prevent leaking materials from spreading to other areas.
 When a spill is detected, be sure to scoop up and reincorporate as much of
the material as possible. The remaining material should be cleaned using
commercial absorbents and disposed of according to all federal and local
laws.
 Prevent spills in the first place by lifting drums with the proper equipment
instead of tipping them. Always use pumps to transfer hazardous materials
into smaller containers.
 Inspect containers regularly for signs of corrosion. This will help prevent the
deterioration from becoming so bad that it causes a leak.
 Keep containers covered. This will not only prevent spills, but will also
minimize airborne emissions of toxic chemicals.
Chemicals can damage plumbing drains, which may cause the leaching of toxic
substances like mercury. If you are ever unsure if a chemical is safe to dispose of
in a drain, don't do it.
If chemical pesticides are used, be sure to maintain a log indicating when and
where they were applied. Take care not to use pesticides in areas where patients
or employees might be exposed to them.
 Use non-chemical pest-control methods whenever possible.
In some cases, there may be less hazardous compounds that can be used in place
of more traditional ones. Tell all lab managers to think of ways to reduce their
usage of hazardous chemicals like mercury whenever possible.
 For example, zinc fixatives can be used in place of mercury fixatives in
certain applications.

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There are treatment systems available that can recover certain substances from
wastewater, and others that can detoxify certain substances, meaning that you
do not have to treat them as hazardous materials when disposing of them. Such a
system might be cost-effective if you deal with large volumes of these materials.
 Treatment systems are useful for chemicals like formaldehyde.
 Recovery systems are useful for contaminants like silver, which is
commonly introduced into wastewater by radiology equipment.
When constructing or renovating a hospital, choose materials that are low in
volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These may cost a bit more, but they will
reduce the levels of toxic chemicals in the air inside your hospital. Keep this in
mind when selecting materials like:
 Carpet
 Paint and other finishes
 Caulk
 Adhesives
 Cleaning products, particularly floor waxes and strippers

Conclusion:
So conclusion is that we can follow the above given plans to make the
hospitals clean and healthy place. We can make it less pollinated, also we can
lessen the water usage and other usage.

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References:
 Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Design in Hospital Buildings
 Energy efficiency in a hospital building case study: Hospitais da
universidade de Coimbra
 A review of the chemical and biological pollutants in indoor air in hospitals
and assessing their effects on the health of patients, staff and visitors
 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16531291/

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 https://scihub.se/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reve
h-2018-0011/html
 https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-01/documents/ws-
commercial-factsheet-hospitals.pdf

Department of Civil Engineering, UET Taxila