CHENNAI: For the third time in less than two months, expired medicines were found dumped in Chennai’s suburbs.
This time, they were found along Adyar river banks near Anakaputhur.Close to 50 plastic medicine bottles, strips of laxatives and ulcer tablets were found in a heap.
Pughalventhan V, a local activist, who has been identifying such activities for over a year now, found these expired medicines on Saturday.
When he crossed the spot — which is near an incomplete bridge along Anakaputhur-Erandamkattalai Road — a month ago, the medicines were not there.
Heavy rain had made the medicines soggy and they were beginning to degrade. A month ago, Express reported that surgical gloves and used syringes were found dumped near Vandalur and Kovur.
Though pollution control board officials quickly clear the items, instances of such illegal dumping are increasing.
“Heaps of expired medicines which were found near Nazarathpet at an empty ground a few months ago have still not been removed. When I visited the spot recently, the tablets had come out of their casings and were in a half-burnt state. Drug control officials say pollution control board should clear this,” he said.
A senior Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board official said the medicines will be removed in a few days with the help of drug control department.
Highlighting the dangerous effects of improper disposal of medicines and other medical waste can have on groundwater, two researchers from Anna University published a study in Water Environment Research Journal in September 2019.
Due to high concentration of pharmaceutical companies in cities such as Hyderabad, Punjab and Ganga River Basin, the study found that samples of groundwater contained traces of harmful chemicals.
Moreover, the researchers said the government has not listed out individual contaminants that cause micro pollution to check purity of groundwater.
“Groundwater pollution caused by emerging pollutants like Dibutyl Phthalate, which comes mainly from pharmaceutical industries, needs to be addressed immediately by government. Like how turbidity, salinity, and pH are checked for in groundwater, micropollutants should be checked too,” said Merin Sackaria, one of the authors of the study.
Elango L, the other author, said direct dumping of medical waste will have more harmful effects on surface and groundwater over time.
“In the next phase of the study, we will be looking at Chennai and Bengaluru. As cases of biomedical waste dumping are increasing, drinking and well water in that area have high chances of being contaminated,” he said.