NEWS

Going by the indication of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) pilot project to pick up medical waste, a significant part of the pharmaceuticals that remain unsold in the city end up in our landfills and garbage heaps. In just three months, the private agency that undertook the work of door-to-door collection of expired medical waste, collected over 10 tonnes of expired tablets, capsules, syrups and syringes from pharmacies across the State.

Lack of responsibility

This is however just the tip of the iceberg, considering that only 450 of the nearly 13,000 medical shops have enrolled in this first-of-its-kind project here. “We have approached around 6,000 shops. However, only 10 per cent have enrolled. A variety of excuses were made, but the reality is that many think it is not mandatory for them to discard the waste carefully and in a scientific manner,” says Shashi Mohan, MD and CEO of Satva Health Solutions Pvt. Ltd., the agency authorised by the KSPCB to collect and dispose discarded medicines.

Read More at :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/most-of-citys-medical-waste-ends-up-in-landfills/article9019277.ece