Environmental Justice
Action in Southern Africa
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Environmental Justice
Action in Southern Africa |
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The
Isipingo Declaration Monday,
April 8, 2002 We, the
under-mentioned Southern African organisations represented at the National Civil
Society Workshop on Health Care Waste and Incineration held in Isipingo, South
Durban, South Africa, from April 5-8, 2002 make this declaration: Noting the
following challenges to the safer management of health care waste: ·
The large percentage of health care waste which goes
unaccounted for; ·
The frequency of illegal dumping of health care waste
on general landfill sites, unregistered dumps and open plots of land, exposing
the public and especially children to harmful health threatening diseases; ·
The lack of separation occurring in SA health care
facilities leading to infectious waste, pharmaceutical waste and general waste
being mixed together; ·
The amount of state money which hospitals pay to
private companies to remove and incinerate the hospital waste which can be
excessive; ·
The continued use of mercury in health care
facilities, e.g. in thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, dental procedures and
medicines; ·
The use of IV bags containing PVC and other PVC
containing products in health care facilities; ·
The inadequate contracts which exist between the
relevant government departments responsible for health care waste and private
waste contractors; And noting
the following challenges to waste incineration: ·
That our governments’ have signed the United
Nations Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which seeks
to eliminate certain pollutants including those which are formed during waste
incineration processes; ·
That the Stockholm Convention names incineration
processes as one of the processes which leads to the formation of new POPs; ·
That the more than 130 countries who have signed the
Stockholm Convention recognise the need to investigate and promote safer,
non-combustion processes for decontaminating waste; ·
That there is a growing move in both Northern and
Southern countries towards the banning of incineration;
·
That ALL incinerators are polluting – no
incinerator is able to achieve 100% Destruction Reduction Efficiency; ·
That waste incinerators emit over 100 different
chemical pollutants including dioxins, furans, mercury and other heavy metals; ·
That very serious health effects are associated with
exposure to incineration pollution, including cancers, birth defects, lowered
sperm count, compromised immune systems, still births, learning problems and
even death; ·
That dioxins have been described as “the most toxic
chemical known”, and that there is no safe exposure limit for dioxins –
exposure to even miniscule amounts of dioxins can have adverse health effects; ·
That the US EPA has found that as many as 1 in 5
cancers in the USA could be attributed to dioxin exposure; ·
That the USA EPA has found that waste incineration is
the main source of dioxin pollution; ·
That incineration competes and undermines waste
minimisation and waste reduction practices; ·
That incinerators require vast capital investment and
other resources but do not lead to significant sustainable job creation or
significant revenue for local economies; We call on
our Governments to: ·
Fulfil their obligations to the Stockholm Convention
by taking the necessary steps to ratify the Convention, by putting in place
action plans and time frames for the phasing out and eventual elimination of
dioxins and furans, and by compiling an inventory of all POPs sources and
stockpiles; ·
Seek to implement integrated waste management systems
which promote waste minimisation followed by waste prevention, recycling and
re-use; ·
By 2006, to have closed down and dismantled all waste
incinerators and replaced them with alternative, non-combustion technology, such
as autoclaves and sterilizers; ·
Ban the construction of new waste incinerators; ·
Introduce legally enforceable standards for the safe
establishment, operation and decommissioning of treatment facilities. ·
Establish effective monitoring and enforcement
mechanisms for waste regulations. ·
By 2006 to have phased out the use of mercury and PVC
in all health care institutions; ·
Develop national guidelines for the safe management
of health care waste; ·
Allocate increased funding to the relevant
departments of health for the purposes of implementing these guidelines,
education and awareness; ·
Provide education and awareness for all health care
workers on safe health care waste management, particularly on the need to sort
and separate; ·
Develop and maintain strict tracking systems of
health care waste from point of generation to final disposal; ·
Be proactive in the resolution of health care waste
problems that health care institutions face; ·
Prescribe procurement practices for health care
facilities that would ensure that unnecessary pollutants do not enter the
facilities (eg. Excess plastic packaging, mercury-containing products etc); ·
Review and reassess contracts between private waste
contractors and government departments responsible for dealing with health care
waste; ·
Develop mechanisms to ensure that private
practitioners, small health care operators and rural health care facilities are
registered and are following the necessary legal requirement in dealing with
health care waste; ·
Establish regional (district) advisory forums to deal
with health care waste, particularly for rural facilities; ·
Develop an independent standards and authorities
directorate/agency to monitor the procurement of health care waste equipment and
resources. ·
Governments to work together to establish common
standards and norms to deal with health care waste. ·
Government will not import and/or export waste and
damaging technologies to deal with waste. Adopted by: Anti
Incineration Alliance (AIA) |