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‘Country needs medical waste management plan’


Published : 11 Jul 2020 09:51 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 03:34 AM

Developing a ‘national medical waste management plan’ in compliance with the guidelines of WHO and UN’s environment department is a need of the hour, experts opined.

A handful of environmentalists and public health experts made such remark while addressing a virtual conference titled ‘Medical waste management during corona period’,organised by Save the Environment Movement, also known as ‘PoribeshBachaoAndolon(POBA)’,on Saturday.

Public health expert DrLelin Chowdhury, also Joint General Secretary of POBA, said, “Medical wastes that have devastating impacts on public health and climate are mixing with the environment through different sources. 

Various types of wastes including gloves and masks are being dumped here and there indiscriminately. People are not also aware of thehealth risks associated with medical wastes.”

He went on to say, “UN’s environment programme on June 19 has published waste management fact sheet where they have given several guidelines for the treatment and disposal of medical wastes for all the countries of the world. 

A month earlier, the World Health Organization had also given several guidelines. To protect the lives as well as environment, we must develop a national medical waste management plan on an emergency basis in order to collect and dispose of medical waste properly.”   

“As we are a developing country, environmental issues are not taken into consideration seriously here. But, we must put emphasis on medical waste management”, said Abu Naser Khan, Chairman of POBA.  

“Department of Environment has been given different guidelines. But we can say that they could not follow the guidelines fully owing to limited manpower. So, City Corporations and LGRD Ministry will have to take the responsibility of collecting and disposing of hazardous medical wastes properly,” he added.

He further added, “General waste management has improved slightly in Dhaka city. But we did not see any improvement in medical waste management, rather the situation has deteriorated. PRISM Bangladesh do not collect the exact amount of medical waste rather they collect only 5-10kg whereas the requirement is probably 100kg.”

DrPankajKantiSutradhar, Managing Director of Health and Hope Hospital, said in this regard, “During the coronavirus crisis the amount of medical waste has increased to a great extent. We usually keep Covid and non-Covid wastes separately in our hospital. PRISM Bangladesh Foundation collect these from the hospital. But, they carry two types of waste together in the same vehicle.” 

“We all have to be aware of the hazardous impacts of Covid-19 wastes. At the same time, we must follow the guidelines given by WHO and the Department of Environment”, opined Engineer AbdusSobhan, former additional director of the Department of Environment and general secretary of POBA.

Dr Rashid-E-Mahbub, President of Doctors’ Platform for People’s Health and public health expert Prof DrSubhagata Chowdhury, among others, also spoke during the conference.