Take action against biomedical waste management facilities

Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain directed the local pollution board today to take legal action against biomedical waste management facilities violating norms, which pose serious health hazards.
Hussain issued the order following an inspection of a treatment facility at a small-scale industrial area in GT Karnal Road, where he flagged a number of violations in terms of collection, receipt, storage and disposal of medical waste.
The government said in a statement that bio-medical waste received from hospitals, dispensaries and laboratories may contain bio-hazardous contaminants and germs of serious diseases such as Hepatitis B and Tetanus.
"The minister directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to ensure that the concerned agencies charged with the responsibility of management of biomedical waste comply with the norms, failing which necessary legal action may be taken against the violators. The owner of the inspected facility will be acted against," it said.

All such waste treatment facilities are governed by the Bio Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 under which waste are to be disposed properly while taking steps to go for recycling of plastic-made products.
"Medical waste pose grave health risk as it may be carrying a lot of diseases and unscrupulous element are prone to recycle some of the waste without properly processing as per the prescribed procedures," the statement said.