Handling medical waste amid pandemic
China, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, is facing another problem now. It does not have sufficient incinerators to destroy the huge amounts of medical waste generated due to patients affected by the virus. The improper disposal of masks and waste has heightened the risk of infection, especially among sanitary workers. Many states in India too are dealing with a similar threat, considering the poor biomedical waste disposal infrastructure.
On March 8, a truckload of medical waste from Thrissur in Kerala was caught while disposing medical waste in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. The owner and driver of the lorry, both from TN, were arrested. Residents in the bordering areas of Coimbatore have told Express that several waste-laden lorries coming in from the neighbouring state were caught and sent back by them in the past week. Similarly, in February, the Kerala government cracked the whip on medical waste generators who were caught dumping it in Karnataka.
While the medical waste handling and management rules were revised in 2018, they are hardly followed. Now, in the context of COVID-19, attention has turned towards illegal disposal of medical waste. Hospitals are supposed to attach themselves with the nearest incinerator and send their medical waste there in colour-coded bags. The information about quantity of waste generated and the incinerator where it goes are supposed to be made public, through the pollution control board website. But to avoid the cost of incineration, many hospitals send only a portion of their waste to such facilities.
The rest is dumped illegally in suburban areas, waterbodies and marshlands, posing a public health problem. The cost of transporting the waste to a neighbouring state is still cheaper for many hospitals. The failure of the medical waste disposal model is not just due to erring hospitals. It is also because of the high cost of waste treatment, lack of accountability and proper monitoring mechanisms. To avert a public health crisis, governments must rework the waste treatment model and ensure it is implemented.