Manila — A week before the celebration of the Hospital Week, envi-health group Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) raises alarm on the Department of Health (DoH)’s proposal to revive the use of incinerators calling it “revival of the unfittest”.
The revival of incineration is an uncalled for. This is a total disregard of the best practices of hospitals, a contradiction against the best management practices that is being implemented in health care facilities around the country.
Under the DoH’s draft Health Executive Agenda for Legislation (HEAL), there is a proposal to amend the Clean Air Act (1) to allow the use of incinerators designed in such a way that product combustion gases shall be treated and harmful emissions are removed before gases are released to the atmosphere and (2) advance emission control design and stringent regulation shall ensure wastes are disposed without detrimental impact to the environment.
According to Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Executive Director, the revival of the use of incinerators whether it will be used for general or medical wastes is like going back to the time when people are “ignorant of the dangers of waste incineration.”
Burning of wastes releases dioxins and furans that are dangerous to people’s health and the environment. In 1999, Philippines successfully banned the use of incinerators for general wastes and subsequently the use of incinerators for medical waste in 2003. The country remains the only country in the world to ban incinerators.
“We started paying in 2001 and are still paying an average US$2 million a year for the P503-million loan used to fund a defunct Austrian Medical Waste Incinerator Project,” Ferrer pointed out. “Unless this loan is cancelled, we will be paying until 2014 for a technology which contrary to claims was far from being state of the art1.
“DoH should seriously look into developing a legislative agenda around the cancellation of the debt and rechanneling of resources to strengthen the waste management needs of public hospitals,” Ferrer emphasized.
“The revival of incineration is an uncalled for. This is a total disregard of the best practices of hospitals, a contradiction against the best management practices that is being implemented in health care facilities around the country2,” said Cristina Parungao, HCWH-SEA Program Officer for Promotions of Best Hospitals Practices .
“Safe, clean, cost-effective and healthy- and environment-friendly alternatives to incineration are very much available,” Parungao added.
She cited autoclave which the government allocated a P100 million budget for in 2008 for several DoH-controlled hospitals. “This however is still undisbursed and was even decreased to P50 million.”
“As the DoH starts its review of the Health Care Waste Management Manual3, we reiterate that instead of pushing for incineration, alternative technologies must be given outmost attention. Also, we would like to hear the report on the implementation of the manual, its strength and weaknesses and why incineration is coming back into the picture,” Ferrer pointed out.
Endnotes:
(1) One of the incinerators emitted nine times the limit for particulate matter, twelve times the limit set for hydrogen chloride, almost double the limit for lead and 870 times the limit for dioxins and furans compared to the CAA threshold.
(2) HCWH-SEA has partnered with several hospitals in their health care waste management practices. St. Paul Hospitals are among the best hospitals that showcase waste minimization, 3Rs (recycle, re-use and reduce) and composting. These hospitals successfully lowered their volume of waste without incineration.
(3) A Technical Working Group is set to review the Health Care Waste Management Manual of the DoH.