10-tonne biomedical waste found

The Telangana State Pollution Control Board has filed a police complaint against unidentified persons who dumped 9.96 tonnes of biomedical waste at Quthbullapur.

The decision to file a complaint came after a PCB task force committee meeting on July 22.

The dump was spotted on July 12, and contained biomedical wastes like needles, syringes, used gloves, discarded medicines, cotton and dressings, vials.

The bags carried the name of a common biomedical waste facility, Medicare Environmental Management Pvt. Ltd.

Hospitals are required to sterlise and destroy used needles, urine bags and gloves and incinerate them. They cannot be recyled or reused as they can cause major health hazards and infections.

The waste bore the labels of 20 institutions including Yashoda Hospital, Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust, KIMS and Green Leaf, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Palt Labs, Yclin Labs among others.

Show cause notices have been sent to all the 20 establishments, an official with the PCB said.

Representatives of Medicare Environmental Management Pvt Ltd told the PCB that they were following the barcode system for lifting biomedical waste from hospitals. After dump of biomedical was found, it had filed a complaint at the police station to identify the culprits.

The biomedical waste has been shifted to the common biomedical waste facility for treatment and safe disposal from the dump site.

The issue of dumping of biomedical waste is a major one for Hyderabad, with a prominent government hospitals being caught red handed last month.

A report prepared by a Human Rights Forum team had found Osmania General Hospital guilty of flushing untreated liquid biomedical waste into the drains which lead to the Musi river, a major water source for the city.

Hyderabad has over 800 hospitals which can produce more than 8 tonnes of biomedical waste daily. These need to be dealt with carefully, else microbial resistance, spread of diseases and pollution can be caused rampantly.