title: Composition analysis of dental solid waste in Brazil.
abstract: When developing proper waste management strategies, it is essential to characterize the volume and composition of solid waste. The aim of this work was to evaluate the composition of dental waste produced by three dental health services in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Two universities, one public and one private, and one public dental health service were selected. Waste collection took place from March to November 2007. During this period, three samples were collected from each dental health service. The total amount of dental waste produced in one day of dental work was manually separated into three categories: infectious and potentially infectious waste, accounting for 24.3% of the total waste; non-infectious waste, accounting for 48.1%; and domestic-type waste, accounting for 27.6% (percentages are for mean weights of solid waste). Our results showed that most of the waste considered as biomedical may be misclassified, consequently making the infectious waste amount appear much larger. In addition, our results suggest that the best waste minimization method is recycling, and they help to define an appropriate waste management system in all three of the dental health services involved in this study.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiologia - ICB/UFMG, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 - Campus Pampulham, 31.270-901 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cristina Dutra
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Maria Auxiliadora Roque
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: de Carvalho
authors.forename: Noil Amorim
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: de Menezes Cussiol
authors.forename: Maria Eugênia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Alvarez-Leite
authors.forename: Simone Gonçalves
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Dos Santos
authors.forename: Renata Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: da Fonseca Gomes
authors.forename: Marcos Xavier
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Luiz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: de Macêdo Farias
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018057:Dental Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D018057:Dental Waste; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal