Two arrested in medical waste trading racket

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 12 JUNE: The chief medical officer of health in Malda Dr Srikanta Roy has expressed concern about medical waste recycling trade rackets in this district.

The matter came to light after the discovery of three temporary godowns close to the district hospital yesterday where a huge amount of used syringes and plastic saline bottles were collected and stored.

Police finally arrested two persons on the charge of involvement in the medical waste recycling racket. Three persons had been detained yesterday for interrogation.

The CMOH Dr Roy has asked the superintendent of Malda district hospital to conduct an inquiry into possible negligence of duty on the part of hospital staff in not using proper disposal methods to destroy medical waste through the autoclave sterilizer.

“I will take proper steps on this issue after receiving the inquiry report from the superintendent,” said Dr Roy.

The Malda CMOH has also expressed unhappiness over the role of the English Bazaar Municipality (EBM). The EBM collects a huge amount of medical waste from several nursing homes and pathological units in this town and receives extra payment for this service. However, the waste collected is not being properly disposed of, as the EBM does not own a medical waste autoclave sterilizer. The autoclave sterilizer was set up in the district hospital a few years back. Last year, the then district magistrate and other officials including the then CMOH approached the civic body to use the autoclave sterilizer to dispose of medical waste collected from the nursing home following the pollution control board's norm. However, nothing came of the negotiations.

The EBM collects all medical waste, including risky waste, from nursing homes and dumps it in a small vat located at Chandan Park in ward no 25.

Every morning, rag pickers collect medical waste like syringes and other plastic items from the vat and sell them to local agents who use godowns in nearby areas for the trade of such items.

To curb the practice, the CMOH plans to talk to the chairman of the EBM and will request that he follow the PCB's norms regarding disposal of medical waste collected from nursing homes. The CMOH also intends to draw the attention of the district magistrate to this environmental problem, which has been going on for years.

“I shall issue a notice to all nursing homes again to maintain a proper disposal system for risky medical waste,” the CMOH said. He also said that there is a standing order to dispose of syringes after use and needle cutters have been supplied to all hospital and health centres. “We plan to supply auto-disposable syringes in all health centres soon. Such syringes will be locked automatically after use. They cannot be used by any one a second time,” he said.