Expert pushes for eco-friendly technology to dispose wastes

CEBU, Philippines- An international environmental expert and health organizations recommend the use of non-burn technologies in the disposal of wastes to ensure safe and clean environment. 

The Cebu City government has partnered with international environmental health group to address the issues on garbage and health care or hospital waste management.

Health care wastes include infectious waste like contaminated syringes, cotton balls, bandages, chemical reagents, specimens, pharmaceuticals and general waste such as papers, boxes, cans, and plastics from packaging found in health care facilities.

Representatives from the different hospitals, birthing clinics, diagnostic facilities, and funeral parlors in Cebu attended the forum on Health Care Waste Management and Non-Incineration Treatment technologies yesterday at the Cebu City Social Hall.

Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, former chief technical advisor on health care waste for the United Nations Development Program, talked about incineration, the process of reducing waste by burning and its disadvantages to public health and environment.

“What people don’t realize is when you burn waste; it doesn’t make the waste disappear. It transforms the waste so you are actually dumping the waste into the air which is the big problem. The worst part about burning is that you’re producing even more toxic materials more than you started with,” said Emmanuel.

In the data presented by Emmanuel, dioxins and furans are some of the toxins produced by medical waste incineration and these two are actually the most toxic compounds known to human and has a serious public threat.

“The persistence of dioxins if it rests on the subsurface soil could last for 15 years, and if it’s surrounded by a body of water, it could stay for more than 50 years,” he said.

“The workers are the most affected by incinerators while the people who are exposed to it (are) susceptible to diseases such as liver and lung cancer and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. It also causes dangerous health impacts such as impairment of the immune, nervous, endocrine, and reproductive systems,” according to Emmanuel.

Safer and cleaner alternatives were developed by Emmanuel and the UNDP to improve the waste management practices in health care systems.

Standard autoclaving is one of the cheapest alternative waste treatment technologies that employ steam to disinfect medical wastes. Unlike burn technologies such as incineration, it does not produce toxic substances like dioxins and furans that are hazardous to people’s health.

Emmanuel said that through autoclaving 80 percent of the previously infectious materials are recycled.

“In Lebanon for example, we use it to make slippers. In Kyrzgyztan, they used the plastics from needles and syringes to make coat hangers and flower pots. So we reduce the waste coming from the landfills.” he added.

Industrialized countries have decreased the use of incinerators. In the Philippines, it was banned under Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 and was the first Asian country to ban it.   (FREEMAN)