Low awareness, poor priority and lack of technology have led to slow and poor collection and management of bio medical waste in Karnataka. An analysis by toxics link, a non-governmental organization, indicated that the awareness level on bio-medical waste management is low among the personnel at hospitals in the State.

Almost 85 per cent of the bio medical waste which includes human tissues, unused drugs, syringes, infected material and swabs may not be hazardous but 10 per cent is dangerous and unsafe exposing people to the risk of contracting respiratory diseases or even hepatitis or AIDS. Pathogens from the waste remain for a long time in the air.

There is a serious need to educate the medical establishments in the State to train people in the segregation of waste and avoid mixing of infectious and non infectious waste, according to toxics link.

In this regard, both the private and public hospitals need to create a safe system for the management of hazardous waste stated MK Shankarlinge Gowda, secretary, medical education, government of Karnataka.

All medical establishments generating waste need to abide the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 of the Environment Protection Act.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has identified 1,643 healthcare centres in Bangalore, of which 1,019 are in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits. Out of these, 490 centres, including various hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and blood banks, are attached to common biomedical treatment facilities. The two facilities are Maridi Eco Industries at Kanakapura Road and Semb Ramky Management at Dobbaspet in the outskirts Bangalore authorized by the board.

It is estimated that the medical centres generate 9,244 kg of waste every day. Around 529 of the 1,643 medical centres do not send the waste to common treatment facilities. Coming to the 600 medical centres in Bangalore urban district 20 per cent are not even attached to the common biomedical treatment facilities.

According to the KSPCB, the major violators of the Biomedical Waste Rules are the less than 50 bed hospitals, small clinics and laboratories. These centres are of the view that not much waste is generated and hence the disposal is mixed with the common waste in the municipal dump yard where there is a risk involved during the segregation, stated KSPCB officials.

KSPCB is now engaged in the information education dissemination programme which will focus on the need to dispatch the biomedical waste to common treatment facilities.

There have been several notices served to hospitals for violating the Bio Medical Waste management Rules. This has led both Semb Ramky and Maridi Eco Industries face huge challenges in biomedical waste segregation.

In order to sensitize the hospital staff, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), have made efforts through a two day seminar to orient the staff hospitals. According to J Porst, senior advisor, hazardous waste management project, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) said that hospitals should install needle destroyers, shredders and incinerators. These are important investments to adhere to the biomedical waste management rules. An efficient system to deal with the waste is to sanitize it at source. It is estimated that there will be 50 to 60 percent increase in hazardous waste generation in the coming years, he added.