Manila — For five consecutive years, environmental-health group, Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) once again called on the executive and legislative governments for the debt cancellation of a 15-year old medical waste incineration project that continues to be a huge burden to the people.
“Today marks the anniversary of the signing of the P503-million Austrian Medical Waste Incinerator Project that provided medical waste incinerators to 26 public hospitals around the country,” said HCWH-SEA’s Merci Ferrer. “Another year will pass and we are still paying for a loan that should have been diverted to other health care needs and services.
The Philippine and Austrian Governments entered into the loan to help in the proper disposal of medical waste. In 1999, however, the 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. However, the government continues to pay close to US$2 million every year and is set to pay until 2014.
Government agencies such as the Department of Health (DoH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) lack the initiative to explore other alternative technologies to properly handle waste,” said Ferrer. “They seem bent on pushing for the incineration of medical wastes when hospitals all over the country have proven that proper waste management is possible without resorting back to incineration,” she added.
In 2007, HCWH-SEA together with the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) for health groups lobbied the national government for a P100 million fund to be part of the DoH 2008 budget for the purchase of autoclaves that will be used to disinfect wastes,” said Ferrer. The allocation was approved and included in the 2008 General Appropriations Act but was never released to date.
“P100 million is a small amount of money compared to the billions of loans and ‘investments’ that the government is entering to bring back incinerators,” said Ferrer. “…or even compared to the US$2 million we are allocating for incinerator debt payments.
“Studies show that 80% of hospital wastes are regular wastes and treatment technologies are needed only for the remaining 15 to 20% infectious wastes,” said Ferrer. “Proper waste management is our best and only option.”
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) posted a factsheet highlighting health impacts, risk associated, reasons for failure and steps towards improvement on health care waste management.
According to the WHO factsheet, among the reasons for the failure in health care waste management is the lack of awareness about the health hazards related to health care waste, inadequate training in proper waste management, absence of waste management and disposal systems, insufficient financial and human resources and the low priority given to the issue. It added that many countries do not have appropriate regulations or do not enforce them.
“Indeed we have existing policies but strong will is lacking,” said Ferrer again citing recent moves by the Congress to revive incineration of waste particularly medical waste. “We have banned incinerators long time ago because we know that incineration is harmful and that there are safer alternatives available in handling our wastes. There are in fact safe, less costly alternative systems and technologies such as autoclaves and microwaves that are being used by hospitals. What we need is the government’s support to public health care facilities and to encourage investments on safe alternatives.”
The factsheet pushes for three key elements in improving health care waste management. These include: (1) building a comprehensive system, addressing responsibilities, resource allocation, handling and disposal, (2) raising awareness of the risks related to the health care waste and of safe and sound practices, and (3) selecting safe and environmentally-friendly management options to protect people from hazards when collecting, handling, storing, transporting, treating or disposing of waste.
Government commitment and support is crucial towards an improved health care. “We reiterate that our government should stop the payment of the unscrupulous debt,” said Ferrer. “The money that we are allocating for this payment should be used to fund other health care needs and improvements in health care waste management.”
HCWH-SEA also cited a report submitted in September by the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council calling for an end to the incineration of medical waste in order to protect human health and the environment.
The campaign against medical waste incineration in the Philippines is taking grounds with hospitals making their strong case against any form of medical waste incineration revival. Recently more than 10 hospitals unfurled a banner that says Incineration harms, Burn not in their façade. Twenty personalities from politics, entertainment and cause-oriented groups also made their strong statement against incineration in a 3-part Public Service Announcement dubbed Burn Not.
Copies of the reports are available at:
Toxic Debt: The Onerous Austrian Legacy of Medical Waste Incineration in the Philippines
Medical Waste and Human Rights: Submission to the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur /a>