The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has started an investigation into the illegal dumping and burying of hazardous medical waste in Freeport. A team led by the EMA’s Steve Lalbeharry visited the site at Valley Trace, Calcutta No 2, Freeport, around 10.30 am yesterday and began an assessment. Lalbeharry was accompanied by representatives of Quantum Disposal and Recycling Services (QDRSL), owned by Kelvin Ramnath Jr, the son of late EMA chairman Kelvin Ramnath.
Company officials were hostile and ordered the T&T Guardian news team off the site, saying it was private property. The T&T Guardian reported yesterday that hazardous medical waste had been dumped in the middle of the residential community at Valley Trace, leaving residents fearful it may be a health hazard. The waste included heaps of syringes and exposed needles, bottles of pharmaceutical waste—expired, unused pharmaceutical products, drugs and vaccines, as well as bandages.
Ramnath Jr did not answer his cellphone and did not respond to text messages yesterday. QDRSL’s operations manager John Thomson said in a telephone interview he went into the EMA’s office personally and lodged a report. Thomson said the site would be cleaned up, starting today, and the medical waste would be properly incinerated. “We met with the EMA and we are dealing with the problem according to the EMA’s specifications,” Thomson said.
Asked why Quantum was collecting medical waste from private doctors’ offices when it had no incinerator, Thomson said: “We planned to buy an incinerator. We expected to get it but the deal did not come off immediately.” He said the company now had an incinerator and would apply to the EMA for a certificate of environmental clearance. Chairman of the EMA Dr Joth Singh said under the EMA’s rules, a CEC must be obtained before recycling or disposal but there was no opportunity in T&T to recycle medical waste.
Most times, clinical waste, which included needles, syringes, pharmaceuticals and bloody dressings, were incinerated, Singh said. He added medical waste could also be buried in a special containment area in a landfill. “There are incinerators at the hospital which is the preferred mechanism to dealing with medical waste. There are possible biological concerns like bacteria and viruses that they want to destroy,” Singh said.
He added that there were penalties for illegal disposal of medical waste under the Public Health Ordinance Act and Summary Offences Act. “The Ministry of Health will also need to be investigating this as well. This will fall under its jurisdiction. We need a legal platform and that’s what we are looking at right now,” Singh said. Several residents expressed relief yesterday the site was being cleared.
Taslim Roopnarine, whose two children are unwell, said: “We just want them to remove this. We do not know what kind of environmental damage they have caused. We want the EMA to investigate the long-term effects of this.” Contacted by phone yesterday, Environment Minister Ganga Singh said he had to get a report from the EMA before he could comment.