Disposing of a health problem

By Sherine Nasr

"If the experiment succeeds, it will be applied to other parts of Greater Cairo," Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata said.

The three districts have a considerable number of hospitals and private clinics. "We found it easier to establish a standard disposal management system in the three areas because they are close to each other," said Magdi Allam, head of the Greater Cairo chapter of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA).

Dangerous as they are, hospital wastes have thus far been left to public service companies to handle. "These companies have no experience in dealing with hospital wastes and, consequently, have treated them as ordinary garbage," said Gihad Abul-Atta, assistant professor of environmental medicine at Cairo University.

Hazardous 'garbage' from hospitals includes blood transfusion kits, dressings and used cotton, syringes, scalpels and blades. Body tissue, chemicals and drugs can also pose a major health risk.

According to Abul-Atta 40 per cent of hospital waste is infectious.

The overall volume of the waste is obviously huge. "Cairo has at least 3,500 hospitals, almost one-third of all hospitals nationwide," said Allam. To these should be added the waste generated by the small clinics, now common in every district, where minor operations are performed.

Wastes are dumped at one of two major disposal sites in El-Moqattam and Ain El-Seira. "The procedure can have a detrimental effect on people's health in those areas," said Abul-Atta, adding that no matter how small the amount of toxic material, it is still capable of infecting an entire area.

"The way that waste is dealt with is a tragedy," said Allam. "In advanced nations, hospital waste is given as much attention as nuclear waste."

In an attempt to facilitate the German company's task, the governorate has already allocated land along the Cairo-Suez highway, where waste will be sorted out and sterilised.

It seems likely that hospitals will be more than willing to deal with the new company. Every hospital will now be required to establish a waste disposal management system or face punishment under environment laws. "This is a prerequisite for renewing a hospital's licence," Allam said. Moreover, he added, if an infection results from failure to dispose of waste, those responsible are subject to punishment under the Penal Code.

The German company will deal with wastes using the state-of-the-art disposal technique of ray sterilisation.

At present, only a small number of hospitals have their own incinerators, including El-Salam International and El-Qasr El-Aini. The majority lack the facility. "Incinerators usually produce zero emissions and the ashes left are less than 20 per cent of the total volume of the wastes," said Allam.

In some cases, hazardous and non-hazardous wastes are burnt in the open. "Burning results in the emission of hydrocarbons which cause cancer and physical deformities," said Abul-Atta.

Meanwhile, two health-care management schemes have been launched, with the assistance of the EEAA, to install incinerators at hospitals run by Cairo University and the Ministry of Health. Using German technology, the incinerators will be manufactured locally.

"We aim to provide hospital staff with training on how to separate waste at the source, the only way to minimise the cost of disposal," said Abul-Atta.

"Such efforts may eventually solve one of the most serious environmental problems that has unjustifiably been dealt with too leniently. They will definitely result in better health conditions for Cairo's residents," said Allam.