PRESS RELEASE
August 2003
CIVIL SOCIETY WILL BE HEARD ON HEALTHCARE WASTE!
Llewellyn Leonard from groundWork will be presenting the only civil
society perspective at the International Healthcare Waste Management
conference, being held at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg
from 25-26 August 2003.
Healthcare waste management is an issue that has proved to be an Environmental
Justice challenge in South Africa. The incineration of waste,
as in the Ixopo area contributes to air pollution. There are health
dangers as a result of illegal dumping of healthcare waste in
poor black residential areas, as is numerous occasions on the
Cape Flats.
groundWork is a young South African NGO committed to the process of reducing
the impacts of badly managed health care waste and stopping incineration
in favour of safer alternatives. groundWork believes that
greater accountability, by both the private and public health
sectors, is a necessary ingredient towards reducing the negative
impacts of present healthcare waste disposal methods on civil
society.
Some of the main challenges that groundWork has discovered through its
work with hospitals in South Africa as well as in Southern Africa
suggest that:
· The fear of diseases like HIV and hepatitis has led hospitals to treat
most of the waste as if it were potentially infectious. In
fact, 90% or more of waste in hospitals, if properly segregated
is simply trash, much of it packaging similar to what you
would find in any shop or office. A lack of good segregation
meant that a large amount of non-infectious waste is being
incinerated unnecessarily. With good segregation of wastes,
less than 10% would need to be treated to disinfect it.
· There is a general perception that the best way to deal with all waste
from hospitals is to burn it. This is based on the incorrect
assumption that most wastes in hospitals are somehow contaminated
and represent a threat. The specific danger in hospital waste
is related mostly to the presence of large numbers of sharps
such as syringes with needles. These specific wastes do pose
a danger of transmitting disease, and require special treatment,
although not necessarily incineration.
· Hospitals literally release kilograms of mercury into the hospital environment
(and out into the community environment) every year through
accidental equipment breakage. Mercury is a highly potent
neurotoxin, especially dangerous to pregnant women and children.
In hospitals, it is found primarily in thermometers and blood
pressure devices (sphygmomanometers). There was found to be
very little awareness of the dangers of mercury amongst hospital
staff.
For more information:
Contact Llewellyn Leonard on 082 353 5029
E-mail - llewellyn@groundwork.org.za
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