Bio-medical ‘mismanagement’

HYDERABAD: It’s like a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode anytime. And ironically, the bomb squads do not have equipment to defuse it. This analogy best describes the dilemma of A.P. Pollution Control Board (APPCB) with respect to scores of small clinics and dispensaries which pay little heed to the virtues of bio-medical waste management in twin cities.

The over 1,000 clinics, dispensaries, labs and blood banks in twin cities, handling scores of needles on a daily basis can’t be regulated by APPCB. They are exempted from PCB control because the Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules make an exception for facilities catering to less than 1,000 patients in a month.

“We have seen that such clinics and dispensaries do not have adequate segregation policies of bio-medical wastes. The lower-level workers in such facilities are untrained to handle bio-medical wastes like needles. This is dangerous because of what happened in Gujarat,” says PCB Senior Environmental Engineer (SEE) T. Rajender Reddy. In the wake of the spate of deaths due to Hepatitis outbreak in Gujarat, PCB and health authorities are planning to take up training and awareness programmes for workers manning clinics, dispensaries, pathological labs and blood banks.

Spreading awareness

“The only way to counter the threat is to spread awareness and train ground level work force. It’s mandatory for all clinics, irrespective of their size, to have an injection disposal system,” Mr. Reddy informed in a workshop on biomedical waste management organised by APPCB on Wednesday.

The PCB officials pointed out that clinics not having proper syringe disposal systems, should inculcate the habit of keeping needles and syringes in Hypochlorite solution to disinfect.