Tuesday, Feb 25, 2003
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Tamil Nadu
By Feroze Ahmed
The centralised waste treatment facilities (CWTF), coming up in the State soon for treating hospital wastes, would be a combination of incinerators and the more eco-friendly autoclaves. "Even very sophisticated incinerators for bio-medical waste (BMW) emit particulate matter, dioxins, heavy metals like mercury, lead and arsenic, acidic gases, and other toxic organic material", Dr. Emmanuel told The Hindu. "Take out the plastics and you will still get dioxins from incineration because BMW has chlorine sources. In Europe, 62 per cent of dioxin emissions are from BMW incinerations". On a two-day visit to Chennai, organised by the Consumer Action Group (CAG), to discuss BMW management with policy makers, he suggested a shift to "cleaner technologies that will digest pathological waste". "A heated alkali digestion unit, for instance, will process the waste and leave behind bones which can be used as fertilisers. It would cost roughly about the same as an autoclave". Other cleaner technologies for treating BMW were various systems of advanced autoclaves like hydroclaves, microwave systems, chemical systems and simple biological systems like composting and vermiculture of wastes like placenta. "Composing will take care of any possible contamination", he said. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), whose officials he met earlier, should focus on minimising waste, by phasing out use of mercury and controlling inventory; reuse and recycle processed waste; move towards cleaner technologies; and monitor hospitals for compliance with rules. The BMW rules here were mostly along international standards, he said, but suggested that they should include waste minimisation and be upgraded to allow cleaner technologies. "When the rules were drafted (about 1995), many of these new technologies did not exist". Four years after the rules came into effect, and several false starts and deadlines later, the State is all set to have its first CWTF - though an autoclave-incinerator combination - from mid-March, if only for treating wastes from private healthcare units. Government hospitals have refused to tie-up with the CWTF for economic considerations and proposed to set up their own centralised facilities, the first phase to be commissioned on April 14. The Rs.1.75-crore CWTF for private centres had been set up at Thenmelpakkam, about 10 km from Chengalpet by GJ Multiclave, which would collect BMW from healthcare units in Chennai, Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvalloor at Rs.3 per bed per day, and process them using a two-chamber twin burner incinerator and an autoclave. Centralised facilities for private centres would soon be set up in Thanjavur, Salem and Coimbatore, the secretary of the Nursing Home Board, Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu, T.N. Ravisankar, said. The Government healthcare system, on the other hand, would initially set up two-chamber incinerators in Tirunelveli, Chengalpet, Salem and Coimbatore at about Rs.1 crore each. "Where we cannot have incinerators, we will establish autoclaves", the Director of Medical Education, C. Ravindranath, said. Sites were being identified for incinerator facilities in Madurai-Theni, Tiruchi-Thanjavur and Vellore belts, and private healthcare centres might be allowed to use them, he added.
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