ADILABAD: Irregularities in the collection and disposal of biomedical waste — needles, syringes, saline bottles, pipes, parts of human bodies and foetuses — have been observed in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
Sources pointed out that such waste is often improperly dumped and collected by municipal sanitary workers, posing risks to their health, apart from being harmful to the environment and the health of people living in the vicinity.
Biomedical waste from government and private hospitals is supposed to be systematically collected and incinerated at temperatures ranging from 800°C to 1,200°C. Government hospitals in Nirmal, Mancherial, Bhainsa, Utnoor, Bellampally, Khanapur and Asifabad, along with the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Adilabad and other private hospitals, are expected to adhere to these protocols.
The sources said the Nizamabad Pollution Control Board granted a contract to a single contractor nearly 40 years ago to collect biomedical waste from hospitals in the district and transport it to Nizamabad for incineration. This process involves distances of up to 238 km from Asifabad and 158 km from Adilabad to Nizamabad.
The increasing number of hospitals has raised the volume of biomedical waste. However, municipal staff, lacking proper awareness and training, often collect and dump the waste improperly, leading to environmental pollution and the spread of diseases, the sources said, adding that contractors have also been accused by locals of exploiting the system by irregularly claiming bills and failing to ensure proper transportation and disposal.
