Buried in Bengal hospital bio-medical waste: Mismatched data, grey market

Discrepancies successful authorities authorities information constituent to glaring gaps successful the mode discarded is treated. Consider these:

• In 2014, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) records, 47% of bio-medical discarded generated by hospitals went untreated successful West Bengal. Barely 2 years later, contempt the fig of beds remaining astir the aforesaid astatine 1 lakh, the discarded generated, curiously, fell by arsenic overmuch arsenic 36 per cent. And the stock of untreated discarded fell to zero.
• In the 9 years betwixt 2014 and 2023, determination has been a 63% summation successful the fig of infirmary beds (private and government) successful the authorities – from 1.03 lakh to 1.68 lakh. In that period, the quantity of bio-medical discarded has accrued by hardly 2%.
• While the nationalist mean of bio-medical discarded per infirmary furniture per time accrued from 277 gm successful 2014 to 286 gm successful 2022, it fell from 409 gm to 256 gm successful West Bengal.
• In the twelvemonth 2017, records show, the quantity of bio-medical discarded treated (29.89 tonnes) exceeded the quantity generated that year, 29.77 tonnes.

Asked astir the discrepancies successful information and the mismatch betwixt the fig of infirmary beds and the quantity of discarded generated, West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) president Kalyan Rudra referred to the authority’s authoritative website “for indispensable details” and declined to remark further.

But those numbers did not spell unnoticed. The CAG’s Audit Report (General & Social Sector) for 2017-18: “WBPCB (West Bengal Pollution Control Board) was intentionally understating and manipulating the BMW (bio-medical waste) procreation fig to marque it look that each generated BMW was being treated earlier disposal.”

That was the twelvemonth Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 was notified and the CAG had reasons to judge that the WBPCB was striving “to debar a antagonistic portrayal of the State” with figures “understated astatine slightest by 49.52 per cent” fixed the furniture strength.

Experts constituent retired that fixed the mean quantity of bio-medical discarded generated from a infirmary furniture successful India — 286 grams successful 2022 — Bengal’s 168,323 infirmary beds successful 2023 were apt to make an further 5 tonnes of infirmary discarded daily.

A erstwhile subordinate of the state’s contamination power committee said that it’s “difficult to quantify however overmuch infirmary integrative discarded is sold untreated” for reuse. “Some of the unrecorded discarded is possibly dumped with the wide discarded owed to a deficiency of consciousness oregon care. But by immoderate estimate, astatine slightest 15 tonnes of integrative discarded is generated successful Bengal’s hospitals. If adjacent fractional of that finds its mode backmost to the market, the wealth progressive is important and the hazard posed is grave,” said the erstwhile official.

A retired authoritative of the authorities Health section acknowledged that “enforcement was lax” from their side, too. “So galore healthcare facilities simply threw distant their waste. Ten years ago, we did not person capable discarded attraction plants either. But what the CAG perceived arsenic a occupation of debased capableness has turned into a time-bomb of precocious corruption. Today,  the quantity of infirmary discarded is understated successful authorities records due to the fact that it is being sold illegally astatine the source,” said the retired official.

According to experts, integrative discarded is immersed successful sodium chloride (1%) solution for a fewer hours astatine a discarded attraction plant. Then it undergoes “autoclaving” — vulnerability to high-pressure steam astatine 120 degrees Celsius for fractional an hr oregon so. Only past is shredded to beryllium sold to recyclers. “Grey marketeers simply lavation it cleanable earlier repackaging, posing superior wellness risks to unsuspecting users,” a authorities doc said.

The grey marketplace is besides the crushed wherefore the existent concern of bio-medical discarded is suffering. “Hospitals wage a fixed ‘per furniture per day’ complaint for disposing of discarded — thing betwixt Rs 8-9 successful West Bengal. Private hospitals negociate and wage a batch less. So the gross exemplary depends connected the integrative constituent of the discarded – astir one-third by value — which seldom reaches the plant. So they miss retired connected astir 100 gm of integrative per furniture per time which would fetch Rs 5 — astatine Rs 50/kg — from the recyclers. That way, they are losing 40-60% of their bona fide revenue,” said an enforcement successful the infirmary discarded business.