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33 city hospitals face flak over biomedical waste
Most private and government hospitals in
Delhi are posing a "very serious threat" to human health and
environment because they have failed to ensure proper disposal of highly infectious
biomedical waste, the National Green Tribunal said on Wednesday.
A joint team of the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB) and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), constituted by
the tribunal, inspected 28 hospitals in the Capital and found that biomedical
waste was being disposed in the most unscientific manner.
The tribunal has issued notices, asking all
these hospitals to set things right in four weeks or face action. The team will
again inspect these hospitals and file a status report by July 19, when the
matter is heard next.
Hearing a petition, the tribunal had on April
23 issued notices to five hospitals for the same violations but formed a joint
team for a comprehensive inspection of other private and government hospitals.
Biomedical waste is highly infectious,
generated both in solid and liquid forms during diagnosis, treatment or
immunisation of human beings or animals or in research activities. Some
biomedical wastes are tissues, organs, body parts, needles, syringes, scalpels and
blades. These can lead to all kinds of diseases if not handled properly.
Referring to the inspection team report, the
tribunal said biomedical waste is collected in open trolleys at hospitals such
as Hindu Rao Hospital. "There is no proper colour scheme to be followed
for segregation…there is no system to dispose of such waste as per rules,"
the tribunal said.
"Safardjung Hospital, Kalawati Saran and
Lala Ram Swaroop Institute of Tuberculosis and Allied Diseases are among such
other hospitals," the tribunal said.
"If the directions issued by the
inspection team are not complied with in the time specified, the directors and
medical superintendents of these hospitals would face prosecution," the
tribunal ruled.
The tribunal also ordered the CPCB and the DPCC
to inspect all these 33 hospitals once the deadline for compliance ends and
submit a status report.
Some of the provisions of the Bio-Medical
Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, say colour-coded containers have
to be used for different types of wastes. Only authorised agencies can collect
and dispose such wastes at their faculties through various methods such as
incineration, shredding and deep burial. But that's not being followed
strictly.
Comptroller and Auditor General has put the
daily biomedical waste generation in Delhi at 70 tonnes and said treatment is
being done with scant regards for safety concerns.

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