THE pathway at one of the district hospitals in Harare is littered with empty boxes previously filled with tablets.
There are pits where these boxes and medical waste is incinerated.
The other highly toxic waste is kept waiting for the relevant authorities to collect.
The litter that awaits professionals to dispatch include male foreskins that accumulate from male circumcision procedures.
Outside hospitals, the Pomona dumpsite is filled with syringes, some of which have made their way into the city centre where they are filled with insecticides while others are used to spray water on fruits and vegetables by vendors on the streets.
To an ordinary person, all this medical waste is litter which has been disposed of, but the major concern is that it has not been disposed of properly.
Wikipedia defines biomedical waste as any kind of waste containing infectious or potentially infectious materials.
And biomedical waste may be solid or liquid.
Examples of infectious waste include discarded blood, sharps, unwanted microbiological cultures and stocks, identifiable body parts (including those as a result of amputation), other human or animal tissue, used bandages and dressings, discarded gloves, other medical supplies that may have been in contact with blood and body fluids as well as laboratory waste that exhibit the characteristics described above.
It may also include waste associated with the generation of biomedical waste that visually appears to be of medical or laboratory origin, for example, packaging, unused bandages, infusion kits as well as research laboratory waste containing biomolecules or organisms that are restricted from environmental release.
Speaking to The Patriot Environmental Management Agency (EMA)’s public relations manager Steady Kangata said medical waste has become a menace to society and the environment.
“Medical waste is a special type of waste which should not be mixed with domestic waste as we are currently witnessing at Pomona Dumpsite where it is strewn all over and has been subject to abuse by street children who are now handling the blood in some of the syringes,” Kangata said.
“The best way to handle medical waste is incineration and you find that the cost of investment in this type of equipment might be high at the beginning but it is far less than the cost borne from the effects of the waste if not handled properly.
“Many private clinics have had people offering them medical waste collection services but these service providers are not properly handling the medical waste.”
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals’ public relations officer, Linos Dhire, said the hospital’s highly functional incinerator has helped keep the hospital clean.
“We are very proud of our hospital and the way we handle our clinical waste,” Dhire said.
“The hospital has one incinerator which was installed in 1972.
“It handles 85 percent domestic waste and 15 percent clinical or infectious waste with a capacity of handling 500kg per day.
“The incinerator runs throughout the week on a single phase 200v metre and we separate medical waste at source with food leftovers, paper waste and card boxes which are separated and recycled by private companies.
“The colour-coded bags help identify which medical waste goes where with black for domestic waste such as papers, kaylites, drink bottles and so on; red bags for infectious materials such as bandages soiled with blood, dressing materials and so on; while the yellow is for highly infectious materials which are used when there is an outbreak of diseases.”
Biomedical waste is distinct from normal trash or general waste and differs from other types of hazardous waste such as chemical, radioactive, universal or industrial waste.
Medical facilities generate hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials.
While such waste is normally not infectious, it requires proper disposal.
Some waste is considered multi-hazardous, such as tissue samples preserved in formalin.
The Healthcare Environmental Resource Centre states that disposing of medical waste presents several unique problems, among which are the risk of infection, the harbouring of particularly dangerous or communicable infectious agents and the delivery of infectious agents directly into the bloodstream, among others.
It recommends that medical waste be treated before disposal to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.
However, it has become clear that, while protecting the public from infection, hospitals using on-site incinerators were exposing the public to an emission stream that included mercury, dioxins and other highly toxic substances.
Latest systems of dealing with medical waste include steam autoclaves, microwave systems, dry heat and hot air systems, plasma arc and use of chemical agents such as chlorine compounds (including hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide), ozone, alkali and other disinfectants such as peracetic acid and glutaraldehyde, typically used for small batches.