Dadar beach dump for biomed waste
Large quantities of biomedical waste, including used syringes, oxygen masks, needles and medicine vials, have been found littered across Dadar beach for the last one month.
This has triggered panic among regular visitors and tourists, who are afraid of getting infected, if they come in contact with this hazardous litter.
On April 22, Dadar beach cleanup volunteers spotted a huge bag containing used needles, syringes, cotton swabs and other biomedical waste. “Despite several oral complaints, no action has been taken by civic authorities. Now, we will write to civic and police authorities on the issue,” said a volunteer.
He further added that they are also planning to ask the BMC BMC) and the police to increase their surveillance on the beach to prevent dumping of medical waste.
Waste from hospitals, nursing homes, blood banks and veterinary institutions – such as used syringes, bandages, amputated body parts and other human and animal bio-garbage generated during medical treatment and research – falls in this category.
While anatomical waste has to be incinerated, plastic waste is shredded and sent to recycling units; sharp waste such as syringes and surgical equipment is cleaned, disinfected and dismantled before being sent to a recycling unit.
Volunteer Chinu Kataria said, “Our 20-25 volunteers clean up the beach area -- stretching from Kirti College to Prabhadevi -- and come across a lot of injections, needles, gloves, swabs and other material. We have complained to the local authorities about lack of surveillance, as they come for 10 minutes or so, take a round of the beach and leave.”
Infectious disease experts said that apart from needle prick, which can cause deadly infections like HIV, Hepatitis-B and Hepatitis-C, other biomedical waste, which has come in close contact with a patient’s body fluids, can cause a number of bacterial infections.
Infectious diseases expert Dr Om Srivastava said, “Every healthcare provider has a process of discarding and crushing the needles. If volunteers locate un-crushed needles, it indicates that the waste has not gone through the safe disposal channel of sterilisation.”