Environmental Risk Factors in Connection with Hospital Laundry Effluent

This chapter presents research findings on how to optimize a washing process to reduce the effluent burden of hospitals thus achieving a more sustainable laundering procedure. Water is used in large quantities in laundries and currently they are producing relatively high quantities of wastewater. Effluent control is especially important in hospitals where potentially pathogenic microorganisms are present. A program for hospital bed linen was investigated and the first steps of optimization were performed. The disinfection effect of the laundering procedure was determined using standard bioindicators Enterococcus faecium and Staphylococcus aureus. The washing quality was also determined by measuring the parameters of the RAL-GZ 992 criteria for hospital textiles and the effluent quality was determined by measuring the parameters in the waste water according to the Slovenian regulations for concentration limits of emission into water or waste water treatment plants for waste water from laundries and dry-cleaners, published in Slovenian Official Gazette in 2007 (Uredba o emisiji snovi pri odvajanju odpadne vode iz naprav za pranje in kemicno ciscenje tekstilij 2007). The disinfection effect and washing quality were both attained in the optimized program. However due to higher concentrations of laundering agents the quality of the waste water was reduced after optimization of the program. Therefore the effluent waste water treatment for water reuse remained necessary.