Biomedical Waste Management and Handling Rules 1998 were replaced by the new rules announced by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2016, which stipulate a range of regulations to be scrupulously followed by hospitals and other institutions generating biomedical wastes, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and agencies collecting and incinerating biomedical waste.

The new rules say that biomedical waste generated in hospitals or research institutions should not be stored for more than 48 hours and the waste being taken to the incinerators be packed in chlorine-less packs with barcoding system. The vehicles carrying biomedical wastes from the hospitals to the common incinerators should be tracked with GPS.

A district-level monitoring committee, led by the Collector, would supervise the implementation of Biomedical Waste Management and Handling Rules 2016 and send its biannual report to the State-level advisory committee on biomedical waste management and handling and the TNPCB headquarters.

Representatives from 207 hospitals participated in the awareness meeting organised here.

District Revenue Officer M.G. Kulandaivel released a booklet on Biomedical Waste Management and Handling Rules 2016 and Joint Director of Medical Services (Tenkasi) P. Ezhilmathi, District Environmental Engineer KirubananthaRajan and a representative from the private agency handling biomedical waste spoke.