Healthcare Waste Report - Environment Health

Bio Medical Waste (Management & Handling)
Rules, 1998, of the Government of India
Realizing the hazards of improper treatment of hazardous
healthcare waste, the Government of India enacted the Bio-
Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules in 1998.
The rule applies to all persons who generate, collect, receive,
store, transport, treat, dispose, or handle bio medical waste in
any form.
According to the Rules it is the duty of every occupier of an
institution generating bio-medical waste which includes a
hospital, nursing home, clinic, dispensary, veterinary
institution, animal house, pathological laboratory, blood bank
by whatever name called to take all steps to ensure that such
waste is handled without any adverse effect to human health
and the environment.
The Rule places clear guidelines on the segregation,
packaging, transportation and storage of bio-medical waste in
conformance to internationally accepted standards. The Rule
also restricts and prevents the storage of healthcare waste not
more than 48 hours.
Further the Rule emphasizes that the Government of every
State and Union Territory should establish a prescribed
authority for granting authorisation and implementing these
rules.
Apart from providing detailed guidelines on the categories of
bio-medical waste, the Rules also recommends treatment
options that are to be adhered. Other key aspects covered in
the Rules are:
Colour Coding and Type of Container for Disposal of
Bio-Medical Wastes
Standards for Treatment and Disposal of Bio-medical
Wastes
Standards for Incinerators (Operation and Emission)
Standards for Waste Autoclaving (Recording of
operational parameters, Spore testing, Routine Test)
Standards for Liquid Waste
Standards of Microwaving
Standards for Deep Burial
The full text of the Rules can be viewed online at
http://envfor.nic.in/legis/hsm/biomed.html
Source: MOEF, 2008
POLICY AND LEGISLATION
Excluding the developed ones, very few
developing Asian countries, have
integrated healthcare waste specific
policies to tackle the issues. Where
regulations address healthcare waste they
are either a subset of other existing
regulations or part of the powers vested
on departments related to the issue. It is
indeed good to have some level of
sharing between ministries such as the
health, environment, and industries to
converge their focus on healthcare waste.
However, a lack of a specific policy or
legislation to address healthcare waste is
highly undesirable and needs to be
rectified immediately. For example, the
Bio Medical Waste (Management &
Handling) Rules, 1998, enacted by the
Government of India roughly a decade
back should be considered by
governments that do not have healthcare
waste specific regulations. The Bio
Medical Waste (Management &
Handling) Rules, 1998, of the
Government of India comprehensively
address healthcare waste management at
all layers and stipulates standards for
treatment options. The left Box provides
an outline of the Rules for easy reference.
TRAINING AND CAPACITY
BUILDING
It is evident that healthcare waste
management is a topic that requires
awareness on the issues and the risk of
contracting diseases when not managed
properly. Health risks can be avoided only
if the waste is properly segregated at the
source, the infectious part of the waste
contained from external access and then
sent for appropriate treatment. The
number of players involved in this chain
of activities is so huge and with diverse
educational backgrounds, from specialist
117 HEALTHCARE WASTE IN ASIA: INTUITIONS & INSIGHTS