Deadline Set For Waste Treatment
The ministry of environment and forests has set a rigid timeframe for installation of facilities in hospitals for scientific treatment of the bio-medical wastes. Failure to keep to the schedule as also to comply with the norms would attract penal action under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
A notification to this effect is awaiting the gazette notification which is expected in a few days. The schedule 6 of the notification makes it mandatory for all hospitals and nursing homes in towns having a population of 30 lakhs and above, to install the prescribed facilities by December 31, 1999. This deadline is also applicable to hospitals and nursing homes having a bed strength of 500 and above.
The facilities to be installed comprise the equipment for high temperature incineration besides those for treatment by autoclaving and microclaving. Presently, very few hospitals in India have the last two facilities. Even the incineration facilities where they exist are said to be of the inferior type.
The new measures would, therefore, open booming business opportunities for the suppliers of these equipment in the coming years.
There are nine manufacturers cum suppliers of incinerators in India at present. But no autoclaving or microclaving system is known to be produced indigenously. They are sourced from abroad
The deadlines for installing the facilities in hospitals located in towns where the population is less than 30 lakh are:
* December 31, 2000_for hospitals and nursing homes with 200 beds and above but less than 500 beds;
* December 31, 2001 _ for those with a bed strength of 50 and above but less than 200;
* December 31, 2002_ for those having less than 50 beds, as also all other institutions generating the bio-medical wastes.
These institutions include hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, dispensaries, veterinary institutions, animal houses, pathological laboratories and blood banks.
The prescribed temperature for the incinerator is 800+50 degree Celsius for the primary chamber and 1050+50 degree Celsius for the secondary chamber with a minimum of 3 per cent oxygen in the stack gas.
The notification provides for setting up an authority in each state and union territory for implementing the new rules. The authority would be appointed by the respective governments within one month from the date on which the notification is published in the official gazette.
The bio-medical wastes under the new rules are divided into 10 categories covering the human tissues, organs, body parts, laboratory cultures, needles, syringe, scalpels, blades, glass pieces, contaminated and discarded medicines, blood and body fluid, chemicals, bandages, besides washing and cleaning materials containing infection.