By Anshita Agarwal
It is necessary to dispose of biomedical waste appropriately otherwise it can be considered as a potential threat to the people present near the waste dumps. Millions of discarded single-use plastics in the form of surgical masks, face shields, gloves, shoe covers, and other personal protective equipment, or PPE, can readily be found dumped by the roadway, behind hospitals, on beaches, in parking lots, in landfills.Biomedical waste can also promote the contamination of bacteria which may spread among humans and animals. Around 25% of the biomedical waste disposed of is considered to be hazardous to health and can cause serious diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B, C etc. Due to the recent pandemic, Covid 19, the face of litter in the country is rapidly changing, putting pressure on an already overburdened biomedical waste treatment system.To prevent contamination and spreading of diseases, it is of utmost priority that we find solutions to tackle this problem.
We can try to tackle this problem by setting up efficient and reliable Biomedical Waste Disposal Centres in every few districts or a city depending on the size of that particular area .In these centres, large autoclaving chambers can be set up along with incinerators. Assigned trucks can collect the biomedical wastes from the hospitals and other various sources and drop it off at these centres. Various schemes can be organised to first collect and degrade the waste present in landfills, parking lots, beaches, seas etc. Then have a regular cycle to process the biomedical waste received from the hospitals. Multiple Incinerators can be set up which will burn this waste that will be time efficient. Materials containing high metal levels and some other types of waste may not be able to be degraded in the incinerator, thus those leftovers can be treated in the autoclave chambers and either be disposed off traditionally removing the threat of contamination or can be sold to the companies who use sterilised biomedical waste to recycle it into fuels, products etc.Different laws should be formed against throwing unsterilized biomedical waste into landfills, seas, rivers, barren lands etc considering it on offensive crime and instead they should only allow transporting it to these centres.Campaigns should also be arranged to inform the citizens on how biomedical waste is harmful to us, so that they can really understand why it is important for us to dispose of it appropriately. The hospital staff should also be educated on this matter. News Channels can be used as a platform to spread the educational and helpful topic.
By setting up these Biomedical Waste Disposal Centres, not only can the government tackle this ongoing problem of biomedical waste lying in the open but also help thousands of unemployed people who are in a desperate need of a job. This may also raise the economic state of India eventually with time.If this is planned properly with suitable laws and a genuine concern for our environment, this pollution can fall greatly in percentage and contamination bacteria amongst humans and animals will no longer be a problem.
Sources:
CPCB | Central Pollution Control Board. (n.d.). CPCB. https://cpcb.nic.in/bio-medical-incinerators/
Gautam, V., Thapar, R., & Sharma, M. (2010, July 1). Biomedical waste management: Incineration vs. environmental safety. Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.4103/0255-0857.66465
Biomedical waste management in India: Critical appraisal. (2018). National Library of Medicine. Retrieved December 20, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5784295/
Effects of Biomedical Waste on the Environment. (2023, June 6). Daniels Health. https://www.danielshealth.com/knowledge-center/effects-biomedical-waste
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