Online monitoring of bio-medical waste disposal not feasible: TNPCB

CHENNAI: As the dumping of biomedical waste along the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border continues, the TN Pollution Control Board has submitted a report to NGT (National Green Tribunal) saying online monitoring of production, procurement and disposal of raw materials for medicines by health care facilities are not feasible.

However, the board asked the police to trace vehicles crossing the border with GPS technology. As per data, there are 27,391 healthcare facilities in TN covered under Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016, as on July 2022.

Based on media reports on the illegal transportation of biomedical wastes from Kerala and dumping in the border districts of Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Kanniyakumari and Coimbatore, vehicles along with the solid waste and biomedical waste have been re-transported to Kerala besides imposing fines, action taken report of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) said.

TNPCB submitted the report following a direction from the Southern Bench of NGT as the tribunal is hearing a suo motu case against the dumping of bio-medical waste along the border.

Recently, the Central Pollution Control Board convened a meeting with the officials of Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and TNPCB.

During the meeting, a decision was taken to discuss the practicability and feasibility of developing a continuous online monitoring system to monitor the total input of raw materials procured and produced and how it is being used and disposed of by the healthcare facilities (HCF).

Following this, TNPCB conducted a meeting with the Indian Medical Association and concluded that the online monitoring system is not practicable and feasible, the report said.

However, the TNPCB requested its counterpart in Kerala to assess the generation of bio-medical waste from each HCF and the common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facilities (CBMWTF) capacity to find out the gaps between generation, treatment and disposal of bio-medical waste.

“The KSPCB shall ensure implementation of the barcoding system for liner bags in all the HCFs to track and avoid the indiscriminate disposal of the same.

The KSPCB shall ensure the implementation of GPS tracking system for vehicles crossing the border for proper monitoring by the Kerala State Transport Department,” a letter sent by TNPCB to KSPCB read.