Regional approach to biomedical waste management crucial – Caricom Official

Apr 05, 2010 News

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Regional effort to put a single approach to biomedical waste disposal in place is on the charts and may soon become a reality with the recent conclusion of a Regional Biomedical Waste Management Training Workshop. The three-day workshop, which was held at the Grand Coast Inn, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara, saw the attendance of representatives of several Caribbean territories.

And according to Dr Rudolph Cummings, Programme Manager for Health Sector Development within the Caricom Secretariat, the disposal of waste is a very important area for regional co-operation. He stressed the point that since health care is reaching more and more citizens in a more equitable manner and more is being learnt about accidental effects of health and medical activities, a collaborative effort is required. “We only in some ways associate biomedical waste with biological materials as a result of medical interventions but there are others…Ideally we at the Caricom Secretariat would look at this project as one which is really providing public goods at a regional level,” Dr Cummings asserted.

And based on his knowledge of the technological approaches to addressing the issue of biomedical waste, Dr Cummings speculated that there will be some efficiency and effectiveness in having regional mechanisms to deal with some types of biomedical waste. In doing so, he emphasised the fact that because more pharmaceuticals are being utilised in everyday life, the potential for pharmaceutical waste ending up in the ambient environment is therefore a reality. “You just need to speak to the United States and countries of the European Union and they will relate to you about the amount of pharmaceutical residue that find itself into their drinking water and into their food chain…quite accidentally.” This state of affairs, he said, comes from years of improper disposal of waste.

Dr Cummings, who was the former Chief Medical Officer attached to the local Ministry of Health, recalled that it was during his tenure in that capacity that the Japanese Government, which has over the years been rendering assistance to Guyana, had raised waste disposal concerns when the New Amsterdam Hospital was under construction. It was requested then, Dr Cummings recounted, that appropriate provisions be made for biological waste disposal. And one of the things that attracted major concern, he noted, was that of incineration where even though efforts are made to get rid of the pharmaceuticals and other residues “you didn’t clear dioxins from further polluting the environment. So there are these issues and some of the discussions I know that have gone on to relate how it is we can do pool disposal of waste.”

And the issue of disposal according to Dr Cummings is already being addressed at the programmatic level, particularly in the area of clinical HIV/AIDS. People in this area, he said, are very sensitive to the issue of proper disposal, thus such programmes already contain mechanisms to ensure that at the local level they do precious little to further contaminate the human biosphere.

But according to Executive Director of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), Ms Patricia Aquing, many countries have over the years been engaged in waste management but yet face the same emerging problems year after year.

It was for this reason she noted that the streamlining of the workshop was crucial. The Japan Co-operative Institute (JICA) funded workshop, which was spearheaded by CEHI, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the Japanese Government was in fact aimed at deriving a regional policy as it relates to biomedical waste management. The initiative which is fully supported by the Ministry of Health saw the attendance of Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who noted that the training workshop is in fact a step in the right direction and even dubbed it “a dream come through.” However, he cautioned that the work is not over but noted that there is yet more to be done when it comes to waste management. “While it is true that we have put it on the public health agenda it largely remains on the agenda of something that we have talked about but our actions have not always been consistent with our rhetoric…The efforts here and the leading role that CEHI has played in the Caribbean, have to match our deeds to our rhetoric.” And it is the Minister’s belief that there has been some progress in reducing the gap between deeds and rhetoric, firmly placing the issue of waste management on the agenda although investments may not yet be consistent with the place where biomedical management should be. As such, he noted much more must be done collectively.

In addition to local health officials, the workshop also saw the attendance of officials from the Solid Waste Management Department of the Georgetown municipality. Aside from Guyana, representatives in attendance were from Belize, British Virgin Island, Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua.

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