In the wake of increasing air pollution in the city, Delhi government on Wednesday conducted a workshop to make doctors and medical practitioners acquainted with biomedical waste management rules.
Biomedical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1998 have been superseded by the Biomedical Waste Management Rules 2016 from March this year.
Organised by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the workshop on the “compliance of Biomedical Waste Management Rules 2016”, invited representatives from hospitals having capacity of more than 100 beds and were appraised about important aspects of the new Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016.
New rules
According to the new rules, Health Care Facilities (HCFs) shall ensure recovery of resources followed by segregation of liquid chemical waste at source and ensure pre-treatment or neutralization prior to mixing with other effluents generated from them.
A one-time registration with DPCC along with a fee of Rs 5000 towards Authorisation for non-bedded HCFs was compulsory according to the rules. Registration of Delhi Medical Council (DMC) is a pre-requisite for all the doctors/clinics while applying for authorisation.
Environment Minister Imran Hussain said: “It was also observed that though entire Biomedical Waste is not hazardous but due to lack of segregation of the hazardous and non-hazardous waste, it tends to make the entire waste hazardous which is not desirable for public health and environment”.
Scientific disposal
He emphasised the need for scientific disposal of biomedical waste as per the new norms, through segregation, collection and treatment in an environmentally sound manner so that adverse impact on health workers and on the environment could be reduced.
