Biomedical waste dumped by roadside in Chennai

CHENNAI: For the second time in two weeks, biomedical waste has been dumped on Thandalam service road in Kundrathur .
Pughazhvendhan V, an activist who shot the pictures, stated that on the same road in the last three years, atleast five complaints of dumping waste had been raised. "Anytime you pass by that road, you can see some bio-medical waste lying there.
We have made several appeals to the state health department and to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to form joint teams and ensure this is stopped. This is not just a health hazard but also dangerous for the environment," he said.
A week ago, about 12 steps from this new dump, syringes, cotton and plastic waste from a hospital was dumped. As per bio-medical waste management rules, 2016, the hospitals should hire a vendor who has registered themselves with the pollution control board. These vendors are required to transport the waste to a certified bio-medical waste management plant at Gummidipoondi.
However, many vendors dump the waste on lake bunds and roadsides to avoid transportation costs. Sometimes, smaller clinics who do not want to incur the cost of hiring vendors dump it illegally.
TNPCB officials when contacted by TOI said they will take action and conduct a detailed investigation into it. "The bio-medical waste management plant is run by TNPCB. But we cannot monitor illegal dumping in all locations. The local body should also help us in better monitoring," said an official.
On many occassions, corporation contractors who manage the city's solid waste said that they often find syringes and bags filled with plastic waste if not biological waste in roadside corporation bins.
"We complain to the TNPCB officials but they say the matter doesn't come under bio-medical waste but plastic waste. However, even that should be handled by vendors and not us as they are infected material from a hospital," Mehmood Sait, CEO of Urbaser-Sumeet said.
Activists have called for a special team and levy of hefty fines for illegal waste dumping. "CCTVs should be set up in locations where it happens frequently and investigations should be carried out by health, revenue, local body, TNPCB, Tamil Nadu drug control department to stop this," said Pugazhvendhan.