Last night you saw the first part of the Ministry of Health's response to the situation San Antonio village where residents complain the red bagged medical waste is being burned din the open too close to their homes. They say it's a biohazard - while the Ministry Of Health says it's not ideal, but incineration does meet World Health standards.
Today, here's the second part of our conversation with the Principal Public Health Officer over what constitutes a real community health risk and what the ministry plans to do about it:..
John Bodden, Principal Health Officer
"In terms of the burning itself, all the biological components because we are talking about infectious diseases or the like. That would be killed by the fire itself, the part that would be the dangerous component to the humans is what you don't see which is the dioxins and furans but those would be only little."
"But I would admit that we cannot say that it would not create a harm to the community because POPS is dangerous to human health."
Jules Vasquez
"Is there a medium term or a long term solution?"
John Bodden, Principal Health Officer
"This has not been an easy situation for the Ministry Of Health, it has actually been a thorn knowing that the system needs some assistance. Ahm, the Punta Gorda hospital had an incinerator at one point in time however that became malfunction and eventually unserviceable. So this was the recommendation, and if you go under the WHO guidelines for disposal of medical waste, you would see that this would be one of the recommended ways of disposing waste."
"What people didn't really know is that just as me our yourself we might want something but if you have a third world country budget, n you cannot afford to have a first world class system."
"And there was a recommendation for us to get a hydroclave an autoclave which we will be pursuing shortly, and that will be a central system which we will be setting up mile 24 - with the assistance of the Solid Waste Management Authority. What we will have to do now is network see how we will now transfer those waste from the medical facilities that are not within the central corridor, which is the south and the northern district. But we will have a system. The total system for purchase and installation will be 1.6 million Belize, that money is already in hand, it is just a matter of time before e get it installed."
A small number of San Antonio villagers have protested over the waste disposal twice, and their are rep has raised it in the House Of Representatives.
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