Philippines — When the 67-year old concept of reduce-reuse-recycle (1) is suspiciously changed to reuse-recycle-recover, environmental health organizations are ready to take to the streets and fight for what is right. Changing the 3R’s to include waste ‘recovery’ is just one of the many things Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) is questioning about the DoH 3rd edition Health Care Waste Management Manual calling the efforts to revise the manual “wasted” lest changes are made.
“Replacing waste reduction under the 3Rs with waste recovery will downplay waste minimization in favour of amassing certain volume of waste to produce energy for fuel,” read the position paper submitted by HCWH-SEA to DoH Secretary Enrique T. Ona.
“With waste recovery, we are opening the market to waste-to-energy technologies which are nothing but incineration-in-disguise,” said Yvette Montecillo, HCWH-SEA MedWaste Campaigner.
“The Manual should place safety as a priority for human and environmental health,” she added. “Careful attention must be given so that it is not used to promote a culture of false belief in zero emission (2).”
Pyrolysis-on-the-loose
In the revised Manual, pyrolysis is once again recommended as an acceptable method of health care waste management.
“We question why DoH would insist on a dirty technology when we have safe alternatives that our hospitals here in the Philippines have been using since medical waste incineration was banned in 2003,” said Montecillo.
Pyrolysis, gasification and plasma are technologies classified as incinerators by the European Union (EU) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared dioxin, a byproduct of incineration, as a known human carcinogen.
“In light of DoH massive promotion of a modern hospital for universal health care (3), we ask what is the wisdom that the DoH is trying to impart to the hospitals and to our health care workers by promoting a technology that is being phased-out from other countries after it has incurred massive financial losses and environmental consequence (4)?” said Montecillo.
“It is time for the DoH to stop wasting its energy and resources in trying to promote harmful technologies and instead focus on developing the mechanisms to source and promote the alternatives.”
Trashing human rights
Reintroducing the use of pyrolysis is tantamount to trashing right to life, health, safe and healthy working conditions and right to an adequate standard of living.
In the 18th session of the Human Rights Council on the UN General Assembly, Special Rapporteur Calin Georgescu cited the adverse effects of movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights.
The report focuses on the adverse effects that the unsound management and disposal of medical waste may have on the enjoyment of human rights.
In his statement to the HRC, Georgescu called for the replacement of incineration as a disposal method of hazardous medical waste with more environmentally-friendly and safe methods of disposal, such as autoclaving.
Universal, modern and holistic
HCWH-SEA finds it ironic that the DoH is calling for universal health care through modernized hospital yet is also pushing for a backward and dirty technology such as pyrolysis.
“The DoH is all for modernizing hospital and health care. The effort is good but one thing that they fail to recognize is that a modern hospital or health care system must learn to acknowledge the importance of proper waste management,” said Montecillo.
“By ignoring proper waste management and its impact to people’s health and the environment, our DoH fails to see the bigger holistic picture of health care.
“The time has come for the Philippine DoH to embrace the concept of a modern hospital which operates in a cyclical rather than linear flow. This integrates the principle that all aspects of health care are interconnected, does not end with patient discharge and are part of the larger community beyond the hospital confines. A true health system does not only guarantee healing of patients but provides a healing environment for all.”
Read HCWH-SEA position paper on the Philippine DoH Health Care Waste Management Manual.