Monday, September 08, 2008 Waste company to expand
AS the government tries to position the Philippines as a medical tourism and retirement destination, a company involved in treating medical wastes plans to expand to other major cities in the Visayas and Mindanao in the next two years.
Antonio Tompar, president of the Pollution Abatement Systems Specialists Inc. (Passi), said development in medical tourism and retirement industry would result in an increase in the number of health care facilities that, in return, will generate more wastes.
He said Passi—which runs the first and, so far, only infectious and hazardous waste facility in Cebu—is eyeing branches in the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod in Negros Occidental and Davao. He added that the company, composed of mechanical engineers, plans to undertake the expansion in two years.
He told Sun.Star Cebu that the expansion would involve an investment of about P45 million.
However, Tompar said the success of the venture will depend on the enforcement of laws that require medical facilities—hospitals, clinics and health laboratories—to treat infectious and hazardous wastes before disposal.
Segregation
Under Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, medical and health care facilities are required to segregate ordinary kitchen wastes (like leftover food) from infectious and hazardous materials, which include bandages, used needles and syringes, and body tissue.
But Linda Alilin of Cebu Velez Hospital said hospital personnel are sometimes confused which law to follow in relation to the proper disposal of hospital wastes.
Ma. Victoria Villarojo, waste management officer of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Hospital, said the public hospital spends about P60,000 to P70,000 a month on waste management and disposal.
But even then, hospitals cannot be sure that patients follow the correct segregation procedures.
Alilin raised the need for a comprehensive training of hospital personnel and close monitoring by responsible government agencies.
Vivencio Edeza Jr. of the Department Health (DOH) 7 admitted, though, that the division within the DOH that is tasked to oversee hospital waste management does not have enough personnel to conduct monitoring.
Conflicting regulations
Aside from this, the DOH and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have yet to reconcile certain regulations on waste disposal that appear to be conflicting.
Environmental Management Bureau 7 Director Alan Arranguez cited the condition in the environmental compliance certificate of the Inayawan landfill in Cebu City that prohibits the disposal of untreated hospital wastes at the facility.
Edeza said segregated waste from hospitals are collected by the Cebu City garbage collectors and dumped into a designated cell at the Inayawan landfill.
“(But) are those wastes treated?,” Arranguez asked in a recent forum. “We have to sit down together with the DOH to reconcile these gray areas,” he said.
A date for the meeting has yet to be scheduled, though.
The secretaries of the health and environment departments had signed earlier a memorandum of agreement providing the respective roles of the two government agencies in the proper management and disposal of hospital wastes.
Tompar welcomed the agreement signing and Arranguez’s decision to sit down with DOH officials.
He said if the law is strictly enforced, Passi would not be the only one that will benefit. He said everyone in Cebu and the environment, in general, will benefit.
If not properly treated and disposed, infectious hospital wastes could become a public health hazard, he added.
At present, though, only a few hospitals have their infectious wastes treated at the Passi facility in Inayawan, Tompar said.
Rather than spending millions on installing and maintaining their own treatment facilities he said hospitals get only to pay P37 per kilo of waste sent to Passi for treatment. (LAP)
