TNN | Updated: Oct 9, 2017, 00:04 IST
Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation on Sunday issued notice to SP Fort Hospital for careless dumping of bio-medical waste in the open space.
The notice was issued after two loads, mostly comprising of syringes, needles and body fluids were found by corporation sanitation workers at Paravankunnu near Ambalathara on Sunday morning.
According to the officials, the careless disposal of biomedical waste is a serious lapse from the part of the hospital authorities and the notice has been issued with strict warning for the hospital. “This is a grave mistake from the part of the hospital because it is primarily a health institute which is supposed to safeguard the public health instead of putting them to such vulnerable heath threats. We had found needles, syringes and many other biomedical waste materials from the waste dumped in the open yard. We had identified the hospital after we found many records and bills of the hospital. We have specifically mentioned in the notice issued to them that we will suspend their license if this is repeated,” said mayor V K Prasanth.
Interestingly, the hospital authorities were caught red-handed only because of some local resistance from the township in Tamil Nadu which was the usual dumping yard for the scrap collectors. ” The hospital had been handing over biomedical waste to private scrap collectors for a long time now and they dump it in Tamil Nadu. But recently, a waste bag fell in the road and the local residents stopped the trucks from entering their area. It is only because of that, they were forced to dump it in Ambalathara and we came to know about it,” said an official in the corporation on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, health experts point out that disposal of biomedical waste is extremely dangerous and can lead to deadly diseases like Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C. “When the blood and other body fluids in the open air contaminate water bodies, it can lead to many infectious diseases like cholera and gastro-intestinal infections. Biomedical waste can also lead to serious respiratory diseases like tuberculosis and many other nosocomial diseases,” said N Sulfi, state secretary elect, IMA.
Meanwhile, the hospital authorities said that only food waste was given to the private waste collectors. “We give biomedical waste to Image, IMA’s biomedical waste disposal unit, and only food waste is given to private agents. There was only a single bedsheet with blood stains that was accidently misplaced with the food waste,” said the hospital PRO.
