CHENNAI: It amounts to brazen disregard for rules..and safety of all others for that matter!
Even though about a dozen instances of medical waste being dumped in public places, have been reported this year, only two cases have been registered by the Tamil Nadu Drugs Control Department, said officials.
This raises a question on lack of appropriate enforcement which lets offenders go scot-free. Among the dozen media reports, Express alone had reported the issue four times this year; two instances in Thiruneermalai, one in Poonamallee and one on the Elephant Gate bridge. Open medical waste dumping can pose serious health hazards like pollution and affecting groundwater.
Action was initiated by officials in the Tiruneermalai instance in October and the one in Poonamaallee’s Nazarathpet, which Express reported on Monday.
‘’We have identified the offender in both cases, through barcode and distributor name on the medicine,’’ said an official, highlighting that in most cases, the expired waste is completely burnt, so much so that it is hard to trace back.
Even in these two instances, though action has been initiated, no one has been held. ‘’The distributors use third party vehicles to transport waste to the incineration plant. The drivers get money from miscreants (read: quacks) and dump it in open grounds. Chances of these expired medicine being reused is also high,’’ said the official.
‘’However, the interrogation is still on and the offenders will be brought to the trial court soon. The court will decide on the punishment,’’ the official added.
Pugalventhan V, a resident of Thiruneermalai, who was the complainant in both these instances, said it is questionable how distributors use third party vehicles to transport waste. ‘’Either the health care facility or the incineration company should be responsible for transportation. How can the disposing party getaway when he is the one who employed private transport to transfer waste?’’ He said he was preparing to file an RTI to get the full details on what action has been taken against offenders for dumping medical waste in the open.
As per the TN Pollution Control Board’s Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, the biomedical waste should be disposed off at the nearest waste treatment facility within 48 hours. It is mandated that a Healthcare Facility (HCF) should be registered to a treatment facility within a 75 kilometre-radius.
G J Multiclave and Ramki Enviros are two prominent medical waste disposal units in the city. When contacted, P Shiva Kumar, a representative of G J Multiclave, said it is only the small unregistered clinics that dump medical waste in the open. ‘’Hospitals properly dispose off waste as they have been registered for a long time. However, only the 2018 amendment of waste disposal laws included clinics to register as well. Since then, there has been a decrease in these cases,’’ he said.
About 2500 clinics and 500 hospitals are registered with C J Multiclave, which mainly caters to South Chennai and Kancheepuram HCFs.
Meanwhile, Drug Control Department officials said in 2019, around 450 cases have been registered all over the State against manufacturers, distributors and pharmaceutical agencies on substandard medicines and selling of medicines without a receipt. ‘’Out of these cases, 100 distributors booked are from outside TN,’’ said an official.