Medical waste being disposed of unsafely.

KARCAHI -- Medical waste in metropolis being disposed of unsafely, with most of it being thrown away with normal garbage and being sold as well; the appropriate disposal of medical waste has been a challenging matter since a long time.

During survey it was observed that in very few hospitals, medical waste is recycled by an organized way and being handed over to waste management companies but in so many hospitals it is being sold through sanitary workers and other management staff; as many hospitals have no standard procedures to treat the waste.

It was learnt that the Sindh health department and Sindh Environmental Protection Agency have failed to tackle the situation and could not stop to the practice of burning and selling medical waste of private and government hospitals.

According to sources there are about forty to forty-five waste handlers working in the city, allegedly SEPA is receiving Rs.

5 to 10 lakhs from them and giving them one year NOC to collect medical waste.

These waste handlers pick up any type of hazardous and non-lethal waste from hospitals and transport it to any company, it is now up to them that they deliver this waste to a company for incineration or dump it anywhere or sell to any junk shop or warehouse from where medical waste is being sold to plastic manufactures on good price.

On the other hand, the number of waste management companies which incinerate the hospital waste is very limited if a hospital gives medical waste to a waste management company so hospital has to pay Rs 18 to 20 per kg on other hand if hospital sales the plastic medical waste to vendor so they get Rs 60 to 70 per kg.

According to experts Medical waste is one of the most dangerous forms of waste...