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Title:	Gap analysis for mercury-free medical facility: a Malaysian case study
Authors:	Mohamad Mahathir Amir Sultan (P72519)
Supervisor:	Goh Choo Ta, Dr.
Keywords:	Mercury -- Environmental aspects Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia
Issue Date:	12-Apr-2017
Description:	The establishment of Minamata Convention on Mercury as a multilateral environmental agreement in 2013 marked the peak of global concerns on the issues relating to mercury risks and hazards. The convention aimed to protect human health and environment from the adverse effects of anthropogenic mercury. The convention aspired to reduce and ultimately eliminates the use of mercury where feasible cutting across various sectors including mining, manufacturing and also medical sector. Long before the initiation of this convention, medical sector had embarked on initiatives to reduce mercury usages particularly in the form of dental amalgam, medical devices, vaccines and others. There had been explorations on the concept of mercury-free medical facility which aspires to remove mercury uses and promotes the use of mercury-free alternatives. Various recommendations had been put forth by agencies in promoting the establishment of mercury-free medical facility for adoption by hospital administration. However, in the local context of Malaysia, there is no similar initiative had been reported or any facility established as mercury-free. This study was conducted with the objectives to identify the recommended practices of mercury management at the international level and investigate the current practices implemented in a local setting. The study then identifies the gaps between these two set of practices and later proposed steps in establishing a mercury-free medical facility based on the gathered recommended practices. This study had chosen Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM) as a case study. This study adopted document analysis, semi-structured interviews and gaps analysis methods to answer all the identified objectives. This study had collected and analysed 109 recommended practices from eight identified documents using a set of inclusion criteria. The current practices of mercury management in the case study were identified through interviews on fifteen respondents from eleven main departments. The subsequent gap analysis found that there were significant gaps present in use, input, storage, application, incident, disposal and monitoring phase of mercury management at different magnitude. The study ultimately developed steps in moving forward in establishing a mercury-free medical facility based on the obtained findings. The scientific exploration of this study that focuses on the issue of mercury management in medical sector will assists the decision maker particularly local hospital management in planning towards strengthening the current mercury-management system. This work also will contribute in the global aspirations on mercury uses elimination in protecting human life and environment particularly on the exposure from medical sector.,“Certification of Master's/Doctoral Thesis” is not available,Master of Science
Pages:	230
Call Number:	TD196.M38M634 2017 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Institute for Environment and Development / Institut Alam Sekitar dan Pembangunan (LESTARI)

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