Liability sans facility

Draft rules ask health centres to ensure their waste is treated

TO TACKLE the waste generated by the booming health industry, the Union environment ministry plans to amend the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules of 1998. The ministry had posted the draft rules on its website in August for public comment and is evaluating the recommendations.

Activists and doctors have launched a campaign against the draft rules as they do not provide a mechanism to handle the ever-increasing hazardous waste. Officials with state pollution control boards have also pointed out major loopholes that could render the rules ineffective. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials, however, claim the draft rules have received little criticism.

Medical waste must be disposed of in a scientific manner because they can infect people and contaminate the soil and water, spreading diseases like HIV, Hepatitis and other infections. As per CPCB only 15 per cent of hospitals in the country have waste-treatment facilities.

Toothless rules

	Do not penalise violators under the Environme nt (Protection) Act No provision to set up more medical waste-treatment facilities or upscale them; there are 168 plants against 95,000 hospitals Allows deep burial of medical waste in rural areas where there is no access to treatment plant. This could contaminate soil, water No provision to increase transparency and coordination within pollution control boards, often blamed for poor implementation