A healthy initiative by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) as it has made it mandatory for Health Care Establishments (HCE) to obtain consent to handle all bio-medical waste (BMW).It also issued guidelines on how to handle the waste. MPCB had made mandatory to Establishment or operate under the provision of the Water (P&CP) Act, 1974 and the Air (P&CP) Act, 1981 and authorisation under Bio Medical Waste (M&H) Rule 1998 for all Health Care Establishments (HCE) in the State.
The Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change also instructed Central Pollution Control Board to ensure that every health care facility shall take all necessary steps to ensure that biomedical waste is handled without any adverse effect to human health and the environment. As per information, HCEs shall preferably handover bio-medical wastes such as pleural fluid, ascetic fluid, HBsAG positive blood, placenta etc. to the Pharmaceutical industry or Biotechnology firms for production of drugs, reagent chemicals, markers etc., if any such industry or firm approaches them for the same. HCEs shall strictly follow the procedure for packaging and transportation of bio-medical waste to the industry as per the guidelines of CPCB. HCEs have to submit the report to the board office about type, quantity and frequency of handling over such biomedical waste on a yearly basis. Pharmaceutical industries to enter into legal agreement with HCEs and inform the MPCB and competent authority of State Public Health Department about such collection of BMW along with quantity and type of waste collected. As per the decision of Consent Appraisal Committee, all the CCA granting authorities shall amend the combined Consent and BMW Authorisation of all the HCEs of the State within 30 days.
