Comparative life cycle assessment of alternative solutions for the management of medical equipment discarded: the case of a panoramic X-ray dental machine

In 2012 in the European Union there were 11,000 hospitals and 68,000 medical institutions (including long-term care facilities, clinics, specialized clinics, laboratories, etc.), with about 3,000,000 beds for acute illnesses. The supply of healthcare services is highly dependent on the use of medical equipment, whose employ is continuously increasing. Moreover, the use phase of the life cycle of medical equipment is very short. In fact, the adoption of new standards, the need to improve safety and functionality of the equipment and also marketing purposes contribute to a continuous renew of the medical equipment: It is estimated that in European hospitals a medical equipment is averagely used only for 5 years. This brings to an increasing amount of medical equipment disposed. Once disposed, most of the medical equipment become a WEEE, i.e. a Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which represents both a serious risks for the environment, primarily due to their content of hazardous materials, and at the same time, if properly managed, a valuable resource. Considering healthcare institutions, scientific literature highlight that not enough attention is payed to medical WEEE, which are often neglected, stored in basements or in unused premises or donated to charity organization for their shipment in poor Countries without any warranty on their real destiny. Therefore, it is very important to promote a proper management of medical WEEE within healthcare institution. In this work, a comparative life cycle assessment is performed to assess the environmental implications of different realistic solutions for the end of life of a panoramic X-ray dental machine. This work is part of the Life-MED project (LIFE13 ENV/IT/000620), funded by the European Union through the Life financial instrument.