Improper disposal of medical waste causing more diseases

Cure without care leading to complications for society when proper disposal of medical waste do not exist.

A boy working in private hospital is throwing hospital waste in open ground, scavengers are picking hospital waste to sell it. Hospital waste including drips are being filled in sack for shift it to major city.

In the absence of systematic approach to medical waste disposal, non-formation of a waste management teams in hospitals, waste produced by the medical care centers has not been disposed off properly, posing greater threat than the original diseases itself adding economical burden over poor in the time of inflation.

According to Shahid Lutfi who is Master in environmental engineering from USA, presently working with various organizations including as a consultant of World Bank on environment, told this scribe that there is four types of hospital waste, sharp which in include disposable needles, syringes, saws, blades, broken glasses, nails or any other

item that could cause a cut; another pathological which include tissues, organs, body parts, human flesh, fetuses, blood and body fluids; third one is pharmaceuticals which contain drugs and chemicals that are returned from wards, spilled, outdated, contaminated, and last one is radioactive which include solids, liquids and gaseous waste contaminated with radioactive substances used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases like toxic goiter.


Under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997, hospital waste is hazardous waste; those responsible for its improper dispose off can be prosecuted he added.


Ali Akbar Rahimoo an environmentalist of Umerkot district said that hospitals in Umerkot district do not have incinerators for burning medical waste, therefore spread of diseases is on the rise. He said that medical waste contaminate the environment, the land, air and water resources. Its improper disposal poses threat to the employees working in the hospital, people of the area and scavengers.

It is pertinent to mention here that scavengers, driven by extreme poverty and ignorant of the risks, sort and handle the infected materials at community waste sites. They pick up anything worth reselling, and syringes and infusion and blood bags are their favourite items. Scavengers and sanitary workers at healthcare facilities also sell this waste to junk dealers. The plastic-ware industry is the biggest buyer of used syringes, infusion and blood bags. Many drug addicts also reuse the syringes that can cause AIDS and other dangerous and contagious diseases. Plastic recycling factories and pharmaceutical has also encouraged this illegal practice, as they are purchasing infectious medical waste items like syringes, urine bladders bags, glucose drips and glass vials (injection bottles) in collaboration of hospitals and sanitary workers.

A medical practitioner shared on the condition of anonymity that when waste containing plastics are burnt, Dioxin is produced, which can cause Cancer, birth defects, decreased psychomotor ability, hearing defects, cognitive defects and behavioral alternations in infants. Added that flies, dogs and cats become carrier, they sit are lick the uncovered piles of rotting garbage. This promotes mechanical transmissions of fatal diseases like Diarrhea, Dysentery, Typhoid, Hepatitis and Cholera and other diseases. One of the most dangerous hospital wastes that often gets mixed with municipal waste are used syringes. These usually harbor and spread lethal diseases by pricking waste workers or cracking open and releasing bacteria. In Pakistan hospital waste is not safely disposed of. Hospital waste is either dumped at community waste sites, 'kachra kundis', or sold directly to junk dealers.

Medical Superintendent Taluka hospital Umerkot confessed that no hospital waste management committee exist in any hospital of Umerkot whether it government or private. He added that there is no incinerator and funds for proper disposal of hospital waste. He also confessed that sanitary staff sells syringes and drips to junk dealers.Sanitary workers told that they sell syringes 45 per kg and 2 rupee per drip.

Manzoor Hassan Bhatti a social activist deplored that hospital waste not only pollute the environment, under ground water resources, but spread of disease through it force the affected people to spend whatever they in shape of cash, livestock to save their health, making people economically weak, he suggested that hospital staff should dispose off the syringes properly, by cutting the needles of the syringes with the help of a cutter, so that the needle ca not be reused.

Incineration has been the treatment method of choice for medical waste for two important reasons. First, incineration has always been thought to be the best method of eliminating any infectious organisms that are present in medical waste. Second, incineration has been economical for hospitals because it substantially reduces the volume to be disposed of in a landfill. Most important of all, the authorities must crack down on the trade in recycled syringes and impose stiff penalties on those who profit from these deadly practices.

This is hard need to collect data in respect of hospitals, clinics, maternity homes, laboratories and other healthcare centres so that those involved in the illegal practice of dumping hazardous waste in the open could be brought to a book.