Re: Bio-medical Waste disposal deadline

[Guest guest]

Dear Group Members,

This is in response to the cited letter by Dr. Verma on Biomedical Waste

disposal. What transpired at a meeting of the Kerala Pollution Control

Board held at Alappuzha, Kerala is given below.

Sub:

Fast approaching Biomedical Waste disposal deadline and Kerala

State — Reg.

Ref:

Alappuzha District Meeting held on 12.12.2002

The Kerala State Pollution Control Board convened a meeting of

Hospitals in Alappuzha District. More than 100 persons attended

the meeting. The District Collector was the Chief guest. The

KSPCB Member Secretary Mr. Indulal was the main speaker and the

cordial meeting lasted nearly three hours.

The Member Secretary informed the hospital owners the following:

1. The deadline ends on 31.12.2002. Thereafter the Board will be

forced to take actions as per the Act and Rules and that can be

even closure of the Hospitals irrespective of the roof under

which that functions. Both Private Sector and Government Sector

Hospitals were represented.

2. He informed the house that even after repeated requests

hardly 10% of the Hospitals in Kerala have came forward to

register.

3. In all towns with less than 5 lakh population segregation and

deep burial of biomedical waste is permitted and that hospitals

need not go for incinerators.

4. The Kerala Government is coming out with a “Clean Kerala”

project by next year costing around Rs. 350 crores and with that

every town will have waste disposal sites including incinerators.

5. The State Government is planning 5 incinerators to cover all

the Government Hospitals and that the IMA is planning four for

the Private sector hospitals in Kerala.

6. Finally he requested all to comply with the registration as

required by the Act and Rules.

The delegates present raised many questions: -

1. The representatives from the Government sector spoke first.

They could not digest the threat of closing down the institutions

and the prosecution notices they were receiving. They said that

the one receiving the notice may take long leave and go and an

innocent one coming in next will be the victim.

2. The registration fees structure based on bed strength and

Outpatients was raised next. This is a clear way to manipulate

accounts by hospital owners and a point for the Officials to

harass hospitals said one delegate. To start with this was only

Rs. 250 for small hospitals and went up to Rs. 5,000 for major

ones. This was revised to Rs. 500 to Rs. 10,000 without any

justification. Many from the private sector complained that they

find it very difficult to pay this hefty registration fees to an

authority established to identify generators of biomedical waste.

They said that this fees must be common for all and a very

nominal one — say Rs. 250 for five years. The present

registration fees is meant to make money to pay the Government

staff in all departments and bleed the private sector white. A

Driving License fees to drive a four-wheeler is the same for all

and it is not based on the price of the car driven was the

suggestion of the delegate.

3. The next disagreement was on the number of licenses under

pollution control. It is said that each hospital must have three

separate licenses for pollution control, viz. - Biomedical solid

waste, Water pollution and Air pollution. The private hospitals

already need around 27 licenses/registrations and with this three

from one authority the total will go up to 30. They said that the

authorities created to control things in this country are now

becoming a liability to the nation. Every license or registration

means additional palms to be greased every month. They said that

if this trend goes on many of the hospitals will be closed and

hospitals can be easily converted to Hotels or lodges or even

supermarkets.

4. One delegate questioned the way the Government is handling

the issue. He said that pollution is a global issue and it is

surprising to note that in Kerala the Government is building

incinerators to burn the waste from Government hospitals and the

IMA is building incinerators to burn the waste from private

hospitals. Even pollution is now private and public. In place of

four we will now have 9 incinerators. The plan of the IMA to

build four major incinerators for the whole state did not take

off even after a year due to non-availability of land and

objections from the public. The interesting part is that the

Government with its empty coffers is planning five incinerators

of its own ignoring the request of the IMA to join them. Some

ulterior motives or vested interests must be there. Soon these

Government incinerators will be a burden to the state and the

exchequer. If the Government is serious with the Act they should

have cooperated with the IMA, which has already collected the

money and are in search of land, which the Government has in

plenty. It should not have acted in such parochial ways said the

delegate. If things go on this line we will soon have

incinerators based on castes and religions — Nair pollution,

Christian Pollution, Muslim Pollution, and so on — said the

delegate before closing.

5. Finally one delegate said that to close a hospital a license

is not required and that is going to happen in Kerala if the

Board and all others concerned cannot think and act sensibly.

6. Hope the CPCB will take up the matter seriously and act to

save the well-established health care system in Kerala. All the

private hospitals here dispose of their waste in a reasonably

hygienic manner without causing any nuisance or ill effects to

the public. All the Private hospital premises are very clean. It

is the Government sector that is most irresponsible in this

matter. Most of the Government hospital compounds are very poorly

maintained. Highly poisonous snakes can be caught from these

places.

7. Another interesting part is that the Kerala PC Board is still

not aware of the total number of hospitals and there are nearly

12,328 hospitals in Private sector alone — 4288 Allopathy, 4922

Ayurveda and 3118 Homeopathy Hospitals/clinic. In Public sector

there are 1,280 Allopathy Hospitals. (Ayurveda and Homeopathy not

known.) That takes the total to 13,608 and hardly 400 registered!

8. Statutes are made to make life safer in this country. That

should not be manipulated to plunder the people and when that

happens the people reject it. That has happened in the case of

Biomedical Waste Act & Rules. What happened in Kerala must be an

eye-opener for the Centre and States should not be permitted to

make rules as per their whims and fancies.

Dr. K. Kishore Kumar, Kayamkulam, (A delegate to the cited meeting)

E-mail: <kumarkishore@...>