CHENNAI: Bio-medical waste is one of the most hazardous wastes and if it is not disposed of or treated properly, the consequences can be catastrophic because of its potential for infection and also for its ingredients, including antibiotics, cytotoxic drugs, corrosive chemicals, and radioactive substances.
As many as 18 health care facilities in the city’s suburbs have been shut down for not having bio-medical waste disposal authorisation by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
A total of 30 facilities in the state apart from three bio-medical waste disposal facilitators had to close operations. The closed facilities near the city primarily comprising clinics, laboratories, Ayurveda centres and private hospitals are located in Red Hills, Minjur and Gummidipoondi.
The move is following the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) direction with regard to compliance with the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2016 by public and private healthcare centres in the state. “Show-cause notices were issued saying the power supply will be shut if they don’t procure a certificate, 15 days prior to doing it. In Gummidipoondi, Red Hills and Minjur, a total of 145 health care facilities were identified sans certificate.
Eighteen of them did not respond to the notice because of which we shut the property,” said the concerned official. In March 2019, the TNPCB in a status report to the NGT had submitted that 365 healthcare facilities in Tamil Nadu were operating without the Board’s consent. Overall, there were 4,307 healthcare facilities in the state and 3,475 of them had been issued an authorisation under the rules. These include 357 government hospitals and 3,118 private hospitals. “However, if they apply for authorisation and sanction, we will give permission to continue operation. We do not want the hospitals to shut down, we want to improve compliance,” he said.
According to official data, the total bio-medical waste generation in the country is 484 tonnes per day from 1,68,869 clinics, of which 447 tonnes per day are treated.Clinics that have been shut, when contacted, said they did not know they had to apply for a certification. As they use injections and cotton swabs, bio-medical waste is generated irrespective of the size of the clinic. “Some awareness by the government would be helpful. Since they are now working on shutting the clinics, they must also spread a word on how to procure authorisation. We only knew about licence and not this,” said one of the owners.