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Government to report on hazardous medical waste
The Environment Ministry said it will report on healthcare waste practices and allegedthat some hospitals have been dumping untreated - and potentially hazardous - medical waste into rivers
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he Environment Ministry said it will report on healthcare waste practices and allegedthat some hospitals have been dumping untreated - and potentially hazardous - medical waste into rivers.
The ministry said it had assessed waste management practices at 30 hospitals across the country using a corporate environmental performance rating system and would announce its results in October.
The performance rating system, also called the Proper ranking system, categorizes companies or hospitals as "green" or "polluting" firms.
"We are also examining areas along the Ciliwung River where health care centers were alleged to have to dumped medical waste products, such as needles," Environment Ministry official Imam Hendargo Abu Ismoyo told reporters at a roundtable discussion on medical waste management Wednesday.
This year will be the first time that the ministry will evaluate hospitals using the Proper system, said Imam, who is deputy minister for hazardous waste management.
He declined to name the hospitals alleged of illegal waste disposal but said that most were privately managed.
The Health Ministry currently has the authority to regulate waste management at healthcare center, he added.
Imam said that some hospitals used incinerators to destroy medical waste. "Several hospitals, particularly the big ones, have installed a proper wastewater treatment facilities that also manage medical waste," he said.
Hospitals are required to have waste treatment plants to obtain an environmental impact analysis documents (Amdal) to obtain an operating license.
Healthcare centers produce both solid and liquid hazardous waste.
He said that there were also a number of private firms collecting hazardous waste from hospitals.
Environment Ministry deputy assistant for hazardous waste Emma Rachmawaty said that the supervision of medical waste was still poor despite the increase in the number of healthcare centers in the country.
"The problems include dumping hazardous medical waste into rivers and domestic garbage dumps. Itis wrong if medical waste is processed along with domestic garbage," she said.
The ministry also found evidence illegal trading of hazardous waste in Indonesia, such as in Malang, East Java, she added.
The discussion was aimed to formulate a plan of action to manage medical waste in Indonesia.
Health Ministry official Wiwik Wahjoeni said that healthcare centers were required to separate medical waste into different plastic bags.
World Health Organization (WHO) reports said that 80 percent of healthcare waste is comparable to domestic waste and that the remaining 20 percent was comprised of hazardous materials that may be infectious, toxic or radioactive.
Healthcare facilities produce waste from infected patients, waste contaminated by blood and anatomical waste such as body parts and animal carcasses, according to the reports.
The WHO said that anatomic and infectious human waste comprised 15 percent of the total healthcare waste and used syringes and chemical waste were 5 percent.
The 2008 Law on Waste Management provides up to a three year prison sentence and a Rp 100 million fine for those who failed to manage hazardous waste.
