UPDATE

Effective management of bio medical waste is practiced only in a few private hospitals in Krishna District .Statistics reflect that out of 560 private hospitals across Krishna district, only a few are managing BMW properly.There has been no attempt or concrete initiative for educating the medical staff of the hospitals in the district on the mercury management as a result every existing hospital, uses a thermometer or other mercury filled instrument as a part of their medical equipment.

It was in this context that Toxics Link in collaboration with GFFD (NGO in Krishna) organized a workshop on “Bio Medical Waste and Mercury Management� in Vijayawada on 7^th February 2013.The workshop was supported by District Medical and Health Department and Arogyasree-Krishna and aimed to create awareness among health (Govt) sector professional, predominantly government doctors on the issue of Bio Medical Waste and Mercury Management

Mr. Murali Krishna MK Sarika , CEO GFFD in his inaugural address stated the significance and the necessity of  conducting these kinds of the workshops in Krishna district. Mr. Janardhan urged for the need of mobilizing the doctors on bio medical waste and mercury management because there are only few who are aware of these issues.

This was followed by a Technical Sessions where Mr. Rahul Thampi, Programme officer, Toxics link talked on “The Menace of Mercuryâ€� and “Bio medical waste management.â€� Explaining about the menace of mercury he briefed about the characteristics that mercury posses and ideal way of mercury management in the hospitals. Mr. Thampi also enumerated the precaution that needs to be followed for proper collection and disposal of these elements. Discussing about the biomedical waste and its management he explained about what exactly is the bio medical waste and the components which come under such wastes. He also talked about recycling units where he cited the example of safe environ which collects the bags  of segregated waste from the hospital every 48 hours and treats the waste with the help of incineration, autoclaving or burying the waste upto 20 feet deep into the soil where human living is prohibited.

The other speakers in the session included included Dr.Janardhan(District Immunization Officer-Krishna), Dr.Sudhakar(District Coordinator – Arogyasree-Krishna), Mr. Murali Krishna MKS(Executive Director-Guide Foundation For Development) who talked on the absence of efficient biomedical waste management in the district and the lack of awareness. The participants felt that hardly any measures were taken and implemented for proper recycling and management of biomedical and mercury wastes due to lack of knowledge of the medical staff.

The workshop saw an overwhelming response from 87 PHC doctors and private doctors and 23 hospital staff members across the district.Also, some key recommendations were made in the conference. The participants recommended that these kinds of workshops should be conducted at the ground level in order to educate the people towards healthier environment and human life. Also there were suggestions that apart from the training programme there was also a need of IEC materials in the local language (Telugu).