International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013 442 DOI: 10.7763/IJESD.2013.V4.390 Abstract—Inadequate management of healthcare waste (HCW) is a serious concern in many developing countries due to the risks posed to human health and the environment. Poor management of HCW exposes health care workers, waste handlers and the community to different risks as : infections, toxic effects and injuries. Risk Management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks. In Algeria, many efforts have been made by the government authorities in order to better manage the waste from healthcare facilities. However most healthcare facilities do not comply with the principles stated in Algerian legislation. In the hospital of Batna city, a total about 1114 Kg of risky healthcare waste (RHCW) are produced each day. By using Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) which is an assessment tools, our focus in this paper is to identify and study health risks that may occur due to the existence of hazardous elements in healthcare waste, to identify treatment modalities tailored to each adverse event and to characterize and prioritize these adverse event in terms of occurrence and severity scenario. Index Terms—Management, preliminary hazard analysis, RHCW, risk assessment. I. INTRODUCTION Poor management of Health Care Waste (HCW) can cause serious diseases for healthcare personnel, who are responsible for waste disposal, patients and the general population. Some types of HCW represent a higher risk to health than others. Approximate 15–25% (by weight) of HCW is considered infectious [1]. Risk assessment is identification of hazards and the analysis and evaluation of risk related to with exposure to those hazards. As an aid to clearly defining the risk for risk assessment few fundamental are often useful, such as what might go wrong? What is the probability and consequence of wrong occurrence? The methods include Preliminary Hazard or Risk Analysis (PHA/PRA), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Hazards and Operability Study (HAZOPs), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and others are used to identify, quantify, and mitigate risk.. Health Care Waste (HCW) in each hospital should be studied separately, since medical waste generation and composition depends on the number and type of departments/laboratories at each hospital, number of external patients and number of occupied beds [2]. Our study focused on risky healthcare waste (RHCW) in the hospital of Batna city. The average rate of RHCW generation was 1.75 kg/bed/day which is higher than the national value of 0.72 kg/bed/day. Inconsistencies occur in Manuscript recevied March 25, 2013; revised May 8, 2013. The authors are with LRNAT. University of Hadj Lakhdar, Batna, Algeria (e-mail : lsefouhi@yahoo.fr). the management options for RHCW in the Hospital of Batna. Lack of knowledge on the pertinent legislation by health workers has contributed to non-conformity instances. Many injuries and infections were recorded, when carrying RHCW from point of generation to the HCW disposal. Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) was applied in this study. PHA has been widely applied in industrial risks, our study attempted to apply for risk related to healthcare waste. A preliminary hazard analysis is conducted to identify potential hazards and prioritize them according to: the likelihood of an accident or injury being caused by the hazard; and the severity of the injury, illness, or property damage that could result if the hazard caused an accident. This tool analysis is based on applying prior experience or knowledge of hazard to identify future hazards, hazardous situation and then risk assessment of RHCW. II. BASIC RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE POOR MANAGEMENT OF HEALTHCARE WASTE Wastes in a healthcare facility cover a diverse range of materials that can be divided into two broad categories: Health care general waste (or non-hazardous waste) and Healthcare risk waste (hazardous waste). Medical waste contains a large component of domestic type and a smaller component of hazardous waste [3]. General waste poses no additional risk of injury or infection to staff, to patients, to visitors, or to the community at large. It is similar in composition to household trash. Risky Healthcare waste (RHCW) consists of several different sub categories such as: Infectious waste, Anatomic wastes, Sharps waste, Pharmaceutical & chemical waste, Human anatomical waste and Radioactive waste (Fig. 1). Of the total amount of waste generated by healthcare activities, about 80% is general waste comparable to domestic waste. The remaining 20% is considered hazardous material that may be infectious, toxic or radioactive and approximate percentage of waste type per total waste in primary health care centers is represented in Fig. 2 [4]. The term „„infectious” is used differently in the medical and waste management areas. In general, medical professionals consider patient excretions as infectious, but the views of waste management professionals vary, depending on the country [5]. In some countries, e.g., Austria [6], infectious waste is used for limited contagious diseases (e.g., black death, anthrax, tuberculosis, etc.), while in others (e.g., Greece) all waste generated by patients is considered infectious. According to the World Health Organization, infectious waste is the waste type suspected to contain pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi) in sufficient concentration or quantity to cause disease in susceptible hosts [3]. Pathogens in infectious waste may The Risk Assessment for the Healthcare Waste in the Hospital of Batna City, Algeria L. Sefouhi, M. Kalla, L. Bahmed, and L. Aouragh