Contact: Sammy McDavid
A Mississippi State student-faculty team is among top winners in an international environmental contest seeking new ways to safely dispose of medical waste.
The only United States group among the top three selections, a six-member group from the university's Dave Swalm School of Chemical Engineering is receiving the third-place award. The winners will be honored next month at the World Health Organization's World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.
The MSU group included seniors Michael A. Bestor of Laceys Springs, Ala., and Elizabeth A. "Beth" Hester of Hattiesburg; December summa cum laude graduate Alissa Willis of Starkville; doctoral student Holly P. Martin of Caledonia; and faculty members Mark Bricka and Todd French.
Bricka is an associate professor who co-directs the school's Environmental Technology Research and Applications Laboratory. French is an assistant research professor.
The MSU proposal involves a process designed to heat waste through a lime-generated chemical reaction that subsequently causes the refuse to harden into a cement-like material.
Health Care Without Harm sponsored the challenge in cooperation with the WHO, a United Nations agency. Representing 350 organizations in nearly 40 countries, HCWH works from offices in Washington, D.C., and Rodeo, Calif., "to transform practices of the health-care industry worldwide without compromising patient safety or care so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment."
The competition's top award goes to a team from the University of Sydney, Australia; Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals of the United Kingdom will receive the second-place honor. Honorable mentions also will recognize submissions from Germany, India, Chile, and North Carolina State University.
The three winning entries were chosen on the basis of entries that best met design criteria HCHW developed in consultation with the WHO.
"As the World Health Organization expands immunization and rural health programs, the problem of medical waste treatment and disposal in rural areas is becoming critical," said Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, a medical waste consultant who chaired the international judging panel.
"These three technologies are potential solutions to this problem," he added. "They represent innovative designs that can be built using local materials and operated with little or no electricity, and they do not require highly skilled labor."
MSU team member Bestor is the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Bestor; Hester, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Hester; and Willis, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Willis. Martin, the daughter of Emily Prine of Mobile, Ala., is a 2002 December cum laude MSU graduate who immediately entered the Starkville school's doctoral program.
Bricka, a doctoral graduate of Purdue University, joined the MSU faculty in 2001. French, who completed his doctorate at MSU, became a faculty member the following year.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For details of the award-winning MSU project, contact Dr. Bricka at (662) 325-2480 or bricka@che.msstate.edu.