MEDICAL POLLUTION CONTROL COMMITTEE
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Air Pollution      |     Water Pollution

Radioactive Effluent/Pollution    |    Land Pollution

The final disposal of all bio-medical waste is to the land. Even liquid effluent after treatment is spread on land. Hence, pollution caused to land is inevitable. However, it can be minimized to a large extent through proper treatment. Open dumping of bio-medical waste is the greatest cause for land pollution. Landfilling is also harmful to a limited extent. Soil pollution from bio-medical waste is caused due to infectious waste, discarded medicines, chemicals used in treatment and ash and other waste generated during treatment processes. Heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury etc., which are present in the waste will get absorbed by plants and can then enter the food chain. Nitrates and phosphates present in leachates from landfills are also pollutants. Excessive amounts of trace nutrient elements and other elements including heavy metals in soil are harmful to crops and are also harmful to animals and human beings.
The permissible limits of some elements in soil for plants are prevented in the table.

  
   


Element

Content in ppm
 

Normal soils

Tolerable limits in soils (proposed)

Be

0.1 – 10

10

F

10 – 500

500

B

2 – 100

100

Cr

1 – 100

100

Ni

1 – 100

100

Co

1 – 50

50

Cu

2 – 100

100

Zn

10 – 300

300

As

1 – 50

50

Se

0.1 – 10

10

Mo

0.2 – 10

10

Cd

0.01 – 1

5

Hg

0.01 – 1

5

Pb

0.1 – 10

100

Leachate containing concentrated heavy metals and or microbes which is released from landfills can lead to ground water and surface water pollution.  

Radioactive waste generated from institutions can cause soil pollution. Cadavers, protective clothing, absorbent paper generated in the nuclear medicine imaging laboratory will also cause soil pollution.  

Minimizing the waste and proper treatment before disposal on land are the only ways of reducing this kind of pollution.