ALL THAT TRASH Dressed in personal protective equipment, a janitor at the storage area of Tala Hospital in Caloocan segregates trash bags, many of which contain infectious waste. The hospital said it piles up 1,600 kilos of garbage a day, compared with 2,700 daily last year. Tala has also tapped the services of a 鈥渢reatment, storage and disposal鈥� provider to collect the garbage, which the hospital sprays with disinfectant. An autoclave donated on Friday is sure to help in disposal, but it won鈥檛 be operated until a structure is built as a designated area for the machine, the hospital said. 鈥擫YN RILLON
More than two years into the pandemic, the Department of Health (DOH) is training its sights on the management of hazardous COVID-19 waste鈥攆ocusing its efforts at the local level, among hospitals and communities around the country.
The pandemic 鈥渆xacerbated our problem on health-care waste [as it] increased the demand and use of varying health-care products,鈥� DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Friday.
This generated 鈥渢ens of thousands of extra medical waste鈥� which threaten public health, she added.
Vergeire made these remarks at a ceremony in Caloocan City where the Philippine office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) donated an autoclave to the DOH-run Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital鈥攁lso known as Tala Hospital after the community there in Barangay 188, District III.
Autoclaves are pressure containers which sterilize, at high temperature, single-use medical implements such as syringes, vials and smaller items of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves and goggles.
From masks to helmets
But there are other kinds of COVID-19 waste, as the World Health Organization (WHO) noted in a report early this year on pandemic waste management. These range from face masks and swabs to medical safety boxes as well as helmets and laboratory coats, which are also part of PPE.
Gerardo Mogol, an engineer of UNDP assigned to its waste management program, explained that autoclaves have a capacity of 200 kilograms and can operate eight to 10 hours a day.
He said the temperature for sterilizing the single-use materials could be set to as high as 93 degrees Celsius (equivalent to 200 degrees Fahrenheit).
After that procedure, those items go through 鈥渟hredding,鈥� then they鈥檙e disposed, he said.
Edwine Carri茅, deputy resident representative of UNDP-Philippines, said his office has also donated an autoclave to the Pasig City General Hospital.
鈥楴umber one problem鈥�
Besides providing equipment to hospitals and technical support and training to health-care professionals, UNDP-Philippines aims to help improve the country鈥檚 response to medical waste management, Carri茅 said.
According to the WHO, one in three health-care facilities in the country does not have a safe disposal system.
Fritz Bonite, pollution control officer of Tala Hospital, said that was its 鈥渘umber one problem,鈥� especially at the height of COVID-19 in 2020.
鈥淭here were times when our 鈥� storage could not accommodate them (the hazardous materials) anymore, so these were just left outside,鈥� he said.
鈥榃hat we鈥檒l be doing鈥�
Also around that time, the Pasig City General Hospital had a daily average of 300 to 500 kilos of garbage, according to Josie Flores, officer in charge of environmental group EcoWaste Coalition.
Early this year, Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones said the country had about 1,000 metric tons of health-care waste鈥攅quivalent to around 166 trucks鈥攂eing collected each day.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) appealed at that time to the local governments to do their part in managing the collected garbage, after it was reported in January that seven children in Legazpi City, who were playing with used syringes and tubes from a trash bag found on the city shores, became infected with COVID-19.
The DENR had noted then the 鈥渋ncreasing amount of improperly discarded household health-care wastes,鈥� apart from those disposed by hospitals.
Vergeire said on Friday that the DOH is keen on 鈥渃apacitating local government units (LGU), especially the LGU facilities at the lower level of care.鈥�
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have proper training or guidance on how they can properly manage their health-care waste, so that is what we鈥檒l be doing 鈥� in the years to come,鈥� she said.
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