UNTYING A GORDIAN KNOT: PARADOX OF BIO-MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL COMPLIANCE IN INDIA

Abstract

Every healthcare institution produces biomedical waste material while diagnosing and treating patients who are either humans or animals. This waste might be in a solid or liquid form such as microbiological and biological waste, abandoned medications and cytotoxic pharmaceuticals, soiled trash, solid waste, liquid waste produced from any infected regions, animal waste, human anatomical waste, incinerator ash, chemical waste, waste sharp etc. All such waste products are inherently harmful and needs proper management and disposal. Accordingly, the management of biomedical waste involves the four fundamental phases: i) generation of waste; ii) segregation; iii) collection & storage of waste; and iv) treatment & disposal. It has been the recommended practice that before disposing of the biomedical waste, the healthcare institutions must disinfect all the effluent as needed. The mismanagement of such waste has an immediate negative impact on the environment, humans & other species. On recurring basis, the medical clinics and healthcare facilities all across the world create a reasonably large amount of potentially toxic and enticing garbage. In this regard, majority of the developed nations have lately adopted the technologically advanced practice to neutralize the toxicity & dumping the waste in designated areas. Whereas, in underdeveloped nations such as India, bio-medical waste (BMW) is usually thrown in open areas, largely due to the lack of awareness, suitable infrastructure, funds and execution of national standards for waste disposal. This paper attempts to ponder on the nuances of biomedical waste management, its effects on an environment and legal infrastructure dealing with the concerns pertaining to disposal of biomedical waste, status of compliance of these provisions in some states and eventually recommending the innovative techniques and best practices which can be uniformly adopted by every state for increasing the efficacy of waste management