Volta EPA urges proper waste disposal in hospitals

THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expressed grave misgivings over the dumping of waste in the wrong bins at hospitals in the Volta Region.

For instance, it said, sharp objects and blood-soaked cotton were often dropped in bins meant for paper, medicines, and other non-infectious wastes.

Assistant Programmes Officers of the EPA, Wise Cosmos Dargbey, said this at a stakeholders meeting on the Take Back Unwanted Medicines (TBUM) project, last week Thursday.

The TBUM project is an initiative by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to retrieve unused and expired medicine from consumers and supervise their safe disposal per the Public Health Act.

The project, with support from pharmacies, is also to introduce sustainability into the product life cycle of pharmaceutical products in Ghana.

Mr Dargbey said the disposal of waste into the wrong bins was hazardous not only to those who emptied the bins but to the public in general.

For instance, he said, waste, including unused medicines, wrongfully disposed of often ended up in water bodies and the soil, posing danger to animals, plants, aquatic life and the public.

The EPA assistant programmes officer, therefore, urged the management of hospitals to make waste segregation a matter of priority in the broader public interest.

Project Lead

The TBUM Project Lead, Dr Cornelius Dodoo, said the project was being implemented jointly by the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) and Ho Teaching Hospital, with support from the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association and Global Health Partnerships in the UK.

He said the objective was to use a one-health approach to address the issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), taking into consideration the environment, and human and animal health.

Dr Dodoo said 15 new bins had been acquired to be placed at vantage points in hospitals and some pharmacies in aid of the TBUM project.

The project lead said the initial focus of the project was to build the capacity of the Ho Teaching Hospital for the project.

“After doing that for some time, we are now working with the Volta Regional Hospital in Hohoe, the Ho Municipal Hospital, Ketu South Municipal Hospital in Aflao, and Margaret Marquart Hospital in Kpando,” he told the stakeholders.