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BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT W THE PROCESS OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
Dr Raghunath Patnaik* P.G. Department of Law, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar-751004
The health status of an individual, a community or a nation is determined by Interplay and integration of two ecological factor i.e. the internal environment .of man himself and the external environment of man which surrounds him. Disease spreads due to the disturbance in the delicate balance between man and his environment. The science of safeguarding health is known to people as’ Sanitation’ and it covers the whole field of controlling the environment with a view to prevent disease and promote health.
The problem of environmental pollution started with the advent of men on earth and now has become extremely acute both in developed and developing places. Due to loss of self-cleaning capacity of the air, developed countries have laid down stringent safety standards and measures to maintain the power of the balance of the nature in the area of waste management, particularly in the area of bio-medical waste management. But the developing countries have either delayed or ignored such pollution problems, which are more harmful, determinental or injurious to the public health, safety and welfare of the public. Paul Harrison in his book ‘The Third World Tomorrow, at [pp. 38-40 has warned that there would no tomorrow for the third world countries if such pollution problems continue to remain in the society for no-adoption of anti pollution strategies. Therefore it can be emphasized that Eco-development is one of the sensible precondition of sustainable development and for that matter immediate measures are required to be taken to snatch the terrible implication of nature resulting from non-scientific disposal of bio-medical wastes.
LEGAL SANCTIONS FOR BIO-MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT:
In the past, there were different provisions under various laws to meet the environmental issues, but they were somehow remain to be ineffective for all practical purposes. The following table provides the comparison of laws enacted in different countries for control of environmental issues pertaining to bio-medical wastes:
Country Nature of pollution related legislation on was; management
including bio-medical waste management
United Kingdom The Public Health Act, 1936
The Birth Police (Scotland) Act. 1892 and 1903
The Refuge Disposal (Amenity) Act, 1978
The Litter Act, 1958 The Dangerous Litter Act. 1971
The Deposit of Poisonous Waste Act, 1972
The Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act, 1974
The Water Act. 1973 The Control of Pollution Act. 1974
The Solid Waste Disposal Act. 1955
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 1976
The Person s Act, 1919 The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940
The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. 1954*
The Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951
The Insecticides Act, 1968* The Destructive Insects and Pests Act 1914
In India the devices and rules for protecting environment are discernible even from the ancient times. The rules for the city administration pronounced by Chanakva during the 4th Century B.C. testify that the rulers, then, were keen on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness as they believed that ‘Cleanliness is Godliness’ (see R.P. Kangle; the ‘Kautilya Arthasastra’, second Edition, Part-1, page 94). The sections 26 to 30 of the said Arthasastra provided for penalties against the citizens for making the city dirty and are given below:
Provision of Law Prescription of Law
Section – 26 For throwing dirt on the road, the fine shall be one-eighth of a pana and for locking the same with muddy water the fine shall be one-quarter of a pana.
Section -27 For the same cause, on the royal highway, such
fine shall be double
Section-28 For voiding faeces in a holy place as for water, in a temple and in a royal property, the fine shall be one pana and rises successively by one pana for subsequent offences for passing urine, the punishment is half of above,
Section-29 It is an exceptional provision and exempts punishment on the people if such
pollution was due to impact of medicine or due to illness of the persons.
Section-30 For throwing dead bodies of animals like cat, dog or serpent inside the city, the fine imposed is 3 panas, and for other animals like donkey, camel, mule, horse or a cattle, the fine imposed was 6 panas and for human dad bodies the fine imposed was 50 panas.
After independence, there is also constitutional sympathy for environmental preservation. As per Constitution Amendment Act. !976, it has become obligatory duty on the pan of state and every citizen to protect and improve the environment.
Article 47 of the Directive Principles of tile Stale Policy lays down that the improvement of the public health is one of the primary duties of the State. Similarly Article 48A envisages that. The state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment. Article 51 -A (g) made it a fundamental duty on every citizen of India who shall have to protect and improve the natural environment. Even the Indian constitution made it clear that environmental laws have certain humanities from Judicial scrutiny. As per Article 31-C, any law which gives effect to the policy of the state towards securing objectives of environmental issues which includes Bio-Medical Waste Management, shall not be treated as void or inconsistent, if it abridges or takes away any of the fundamental rights conferred by Article 14 or 19. nor any such law shall be called in question any court on the ground that it does not give effect to that policy. The Parliament and the State Legislature has been conferred with exclusive power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List-I (Union List) and List -II (State List) and the List-Ill (Concurrent List) of the VIl Schedule items which includes environmental issues. For example List-11 of the State List, Entrv-6 deals with Public Health and Sanitation, Entry-18 deals with Land and right in and over the land and under List-III (Concurrent List) Entry-20 the State has the power to enact on economic and social planning which includes Bio-Medicaid Waste Management regulations.
The Hospitals and other health-care institutions dump their wastes, containing human tissues, blood soaked items, excreta, drugs, swabs, disposable syringes and needles, bandages, etc., in the municipal garbage dumps. These dumping sites are regularly visited by the ‘Rag-pickers’ who scan and sort out the plastics, disposable syringes, etc., so that thy can be resold at various places for re-cycling. The problems of the waste disposal in the hospitals and other health-care institutions have become issues of increasing concern.
Under the Indian Penal Code 1860, apolluter of environment can also be punished if he does any act which causes any common injury; danger or annoyance to the public or to the people in general then the act may be treated as public nuisance as defined under Section 268 and the offender may be punished under Section 290or 291 of the code. Similarly if a person unlawfully or negligently does any work which is or which he knows or has reason to believe to be likely to spread infection of any disease dangerous to life, may be punished under Section 269 of the Indian Penal Code. There are also penal provisions under a situation which either causes or destroys or diminishes the value or utility or any property injurious as provided under Sections 426, 430, 431 and 432 of the Indian Penal Code. This otherwise means that if any person who generates, collects, receives, stores, transports, treats disposes or handles bio-medical wastes in any form shall be treated as the contravenor of the above penal provisions.
Almost all types of pollution can be controlled or removed by the District and Sub Divisional Magistrates or by Magistrates specially empowered for the purpose, by exercising powers under Section 133 (for issuance of a conditional injunction order against a particular person, under Section 143 (for issuance of an absolute order against general public nor to repeat or continue a public nuisance) and under Section 144 (for issuance of an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) or the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.
The Police Act 1861 prevents and control the slaughtering of animals, cleaning of carcass, throwing dirt into streets and also prescribes punishments for the offenders.
The Municipal Acts also provides for regulating and controlling disposal of domestic and trade effluents.
It can therefore be stated that social regulation can be achieved through the establishment of norms of conduct and the creation of required machinery along with accompanying empowerment on the authority. Law serves as one of die key instruments of such social regulation. Therefore it is essential for developing a legal frame work on the management of Biomedical Waste and implementation of the same thought an effective medium for sustainable development. This needs an integrative character highlighting consensus planning, policy and procedure which are not considered inimical to the social norms. Therefore a judicious balance between environment protection and bio-medical waste management is the need of the hour.
Environment in the modern context sustainable development encompasses the physical and social factors of the surroundings of human being and includes land, water, atmosphere, climate, sound, order, taste and some biological factors such as animals, plants etc., All these factors play a key role in the formulation of regulations for effective management under bio-medical waste management. Therefore the management practice msut aim to monitor land-use planning and zoning for which it is necessary to analyse the integrative character of Bio-Medical Wastes generated in the locality. The law on Bio-Medical Waste (Management and /handling) Rules, 1998 is a laudable step in this regard. But there are certain implementative/treatment facility instead of decentralizing the scheme over the units, despite the fact that the occupier/operator has the means of potential to handle the same.
Under the circumstances, ti become imperative to approach the subject holistically particularly in the land use planning and zoning, licensing and standard setting besides used for prescribing specific punitive sanctions so that deterrence is achieved to the optimum. It may be stated that the rational behind such planned land use and zoning is simply for the reason that [1] there is limited land resources and [2] there is grater impossibility of pre-empting the negative side effects in the Bio-Medical Waste management. Therefore the envisaged law must aim to prohibit or impose restriction against undesirable land use for dumping the medical wastes.
Even before taking steps for licensing the institutions for managing the Bio-Medical Wastes, it is necessary that an EIA, as per Principle-I of UNEP goals should be conducted so that people are aware about the environmental effects on such dumping of bio-medical wastes.
In the proposed Law, under Rule-4, it should be read as ‘DUTY OF OCCUPIER’ Instead of ‘DUTY OCCUPIER’. Rule-6 is categorical about the identification of type of bio-medical wastes and the manner in which they have to be packed and disposed, as such the very handling of such wastes requires constant monitoring by a specific agency; the environmental management authorities in the States are either handicapped or are not equipped with man-power potential discharge the function. Since the matter falls within the ambit and scope of local Authorities viz: Municipalities, the task of monitoring should be entrusted to the subject of course to the satisfaction of environment standard maintenance.
Towards the licensing and standard setting, the propsed law should aim to emphasise on quality of air and water that are likely to be affected before issuance of such license. Also there should be authorization to the empowered officers to de-license the polluting the level of pollution for which it is necessary to have a strong enforcement mechanism within the frame-work of law.
Incidentally, in 1989 the Government of India, In exercise of powers conferred under sections 6,8 and 25 of the Environmental Protection Act, 1986 formulated the Hazardous Waste(Management & Handling) Rules, 1989 which were amended in 2000. But these rules did not cover hospital wastes, despite of the fact that India was a party to Basel Convention on Medical Waste Management and therefore is bound to implement the same. In consonance with the same a draft notification on Bio-Medical Wastes (Management and Hanlding) Rules, 1995 was issued on 24th April, 1995 vide S.O. 378(E) II 3(ii) Gazette of India Extra., Sl.No. 19 and objections were invited from public. After duly considering necessary amendment in the Draft Rules, the Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1998 finally came into operation with effect from 20th July, 1998 vide S.O. 630 (E) II 3(ii), Gazette of India, Extra, Sl.No. 460. These Rules are applicable to all persons who generate, collect, receive, store, transplant, dispose or handle bio-medical waste in any form.
The Bio-Medical (Management and Hanlding0 Rules enumerate the Institutions generating bio-medical wastes including hospital, nursing homes, clinics, dispensaries, veterinary institutions, animal houses, pathological laboratiories and blood banks. This also specifically mention the duty of occupier, categories of bio-medical wastes and various standards for treatment and disposal of biomedical wastes.
JUDICIAL RESPONSE:
Tile issue of 'Improper Hospital Waste Management' in India was first 10 highlighted in a writ application in B.L. Wadhera v. Union of India, AIR !996 SC 2969. The apex court while keeping in view the appalling conditions arising due to le bio-medical waste disposal provided certain guide line:
(a) All hospitals with 50 bed and above should install incinerators or any other
effective alternate method under their own administrative control.
(b) The incinerator or alternative methods should be fitted with necessary
pollution control mechanism, approved and confirming to the standards laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board.
(c) The Central Pollution Control Board and the State Pollution Control Boards
should regularly send its inspection teams in different areas to ascertain that the collection transportation and disposal of garbage/ wastes is carried out satisfactorily.
CONCLUSION :
The solution of environmental pollution on bio-medical waste management solicits concentrated multi-disciplinary endeavours. Therefore proper environmental health requires the co-operation and service of public health and medical professionalism apart from educating people about the menace.