The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Treated poorly, biomedical waste turns hazardous

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 26, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Treated poorly, biomedical waste turns hazardous

Sahana Charan

With healthcare establishments generating 9,244 kg of waste every day, their scientific disposal has become a major problem

Many institutions do not send hazardous waste for treatment
Segregation of biomedical waste is a big problem

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Who cares: Unscientific disposal of garbage has become a major hurdle in maintaining hygiene in hospitals. Waste dumped at Bowring hospital in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: Last month, an uproar erupted over the discovery of foetuses and other biomedical waste indiscriminately dumped in gunny bags at Jakkarayanakare in the city. But even as the furore died down, the focus has shifted to a critical yet often neglected area: increased load of unsystematically dumped biomedical and municipal waste in a city, now in the midst of new hospitals and clinics mushrooming thick and fast.

To gauge the gravity of the problem, consider this: the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has identified 1,643 healthcare establishments in and around Bangalore, of which 1,019 are in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits. Of these, 490 establishments, including various hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and blood banks, are attached to common biomedical treatment facilities recognised by the Board.

Although they generate 9,244 kg of waste every day, 529 institutions do not send the hazardous waste to common treatment facilities. Of the 600-plus establishments in Bangalore Urban district, at least 20 per cent are not even attached to these facilities.

The KSPCB had authorised two organisations — Maridi Eco Industries at Kanakapura Road and Semb Ramky Management at Dobbaspet in the outskirts of the City — to manage biomedical waste in and around Bangalore. All medical establishments generating such waste were brought under the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 of the Environment Protection Act.

Board officials said that most of the defaulting establishments are either hospitals with less than 50 beds or small clinics and laboratories. Yet, they are not found to generate a lot of waste.

“The quantum generated by all the hospitals and other medical centres and the quantum being sent to the common treatment facilities do not match. Therefore some amount of biomedical waste is being mixed and dumped with municipal waste, which may pose a health hazard. There is also some ambiguity about what constitutes bio-medical waste,” admitted H.C. Sharatchandra, Chairperson of KSPCB.

The board’s focus was not on penalising the defaulters but on creating awareness. Most of the establishments are not even aware of the norms, he said, justifying the board’s decision to concentrate on information dissemination to all hospitals and clinics. The stress was on the need to send biomedical waste to common treatment facilities.

Notices served

But, he said, the board had served notices on all the defaulting hospitals and hearings were being taken up. The board also held a meeting last month with the companies running common treatment facilities and directed them to take action to cover all healthcare establishments.

“We have about 500 establishments attached to our facility. But at least five per cent of hospitals and many more clinics coming under our jurisdiction are not registered with us. Even though these are small establishments they may be generating a large amount of hazardous waste,” B.K. Nagaraj, Director of Semb Ramky, said.

Liquid waste disposal

One of the major drawbacks in regulating the disposal of biomedical waste is the ambiguity over disposal of liquid waste, mostly blood and blood components. This kind of waste is not listed under the Bio-Medical Waste rules as hazardous and is also not collected by the organisations running common treatment facilities. It has to be disposed of by the hospitals and clinics themselves and some of them may not do it in a scientific way.

The healthcare institutions are supposed to chemically treat liquid waste and disinfect it before leaving the treated liquid into the drain.

According to a board official, KSPCB held a meeting with 34 major hospitals in the city recently and asked them to draw up an action plan to set up liquid waste treatment units in the hospitals, so that at least 60 per cent of the treated water could be recycled and re-used for secondary purposes.

Improper segregation of biomedical waste by hospitals is a big problem for the common treatment facilities. “This is one of the main problems that we face while collecting and managing biomedical waste, as hospitals and clinics do not segregate their waste properly. It is also not possible for us to check every bag. But we have been trying to raise awareness about this through the board,” said M.A. Srinath, vice-president of Maridi Eco Industries.

Mr. Sharatchandra added that many of the bigger government hospitals also do not follow the procedures for segregating and managing of bio-medical waste properly.

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