50 tons of used & deadly medical waste seized in Asarva

More than 50 tonnes of biomedical waste comprising items like used syringes — which experts think may have injected the killer hepatitis-B virus into Modasa — have been recovered very close to your home.

The AMC recovered the cache of contaminated syringes, IV tubes, glucose bottles and other medical supplies from an Asarva business, Chamunda Factory. The corporation has sealed the factory as well as four others it raided, on Wednesday. AMC officials said that one of the factories not only dealt in biomedical waste, but also packaged water in used drinking-water pouches and bottles.

The AMC’s action was spurred by an alert from the state health department, which had rounded up scrap dealers in Modasa for illegally trading in biomedical waste. The dealers told health officials that they procured the waste from Ahmedabad dealers.

After the AMC raids, the owners of two scrap godowns were arrested, and a police complaint filed against one Dr Pankaj Vasani.

The Shahibaug police arrested the godown owners, Buddharam Kumawat and Devidas Kumawat, for hoarding used syringes, IV and plastic bottles, and other contaminated items. The arrests took place in response to a complaint filed by an AMC sanitary inspector, Harshad Patel. The godowns, located near Chamunda Bridge, were sealed. The police said the godowns posed a danger to the health of the people living in the vicinity, and that Patel’s complaint had noted a stench emanating from the godowns.

The chairman of the AMC’s health and solid-waste committee, Praful Rawal, said that the civic body had initiated a drive to assess if clinics in the city adhered to the prescribed norms for disposing biomedical waste. “We have inspected some 600 clinics and have served notices on around 200 clinics which did not have the required certificates, or were found to be negligent,” Rawal said.

5 Modasa docs arrested

Sabarkantha district health officials nabbed five doctors in Modasa for not disposing medical waste in accordance with the prescribed medical norms and sealed their clinic late on Wednesday. A total of 13 people, including five doctors and three scrap dealers have been arrested so far. The arrested doctors were granted bail on Thursday.

Assistant health commissioner in Modasa, KG Nogia told DNA that the doctors were arrested because they sold the medical waste to the scrap dealers.

“The scrap dealers told us that they bought disposed medical waste from these doctors’ clinic,” said Nogia. “We have also got a tip off about the involvement of medical waste management companies,” said officials.

The arrested doctors were identified as Dr Jayesh Shah, Dr Prakash Shah, Dr Dilip Shah, Dr Suresh Shah and Dr Haresh Shah. 

Niyati Rana/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication