ENVI GROUPS LAUD DOH SCRAPPING OF INCINERATOR PLAN

NEWS RELEASE

August 26, 2010

ENVI GROUPS LAUD DOH SCRAPPING OF INCINERATOR PLAN
Cancellation of incinerator debt pushed

“Bid incineration goodbye once and for all.”

This was the call of Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA), Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Greenpeace and Ecowaste Coalition in a round table discussion with the Department of Health (DoH) where the later announced the scrapping of planned revival of incinerators.

The DoH’s draft Health Executive Agenda for Legislation proposed amendment of the Clean Air Act (1) to allow the use of incinerators designed in such a way that product combustion gases shall be treated and harmful emissions are removed before gases are released to the atmosphere and (2) advance emission control design and stringent regulation shall ensure wastes are disposed without detrimental impact to the environment.

The four organizations immediately questioned the proposal and sent a letter asking the Department to scrap the plan. DoH immediately retracted the plan and said it will no longer include incineration in the HEAL which will be presented in Congress.

Cancel incinerator plan, cancel incinerator debt
The groups likewise asked the DoH to take an active role in pushing the Legislative to cancel the debt payment for the P503 million Austrian Medical Waste Incinerator Project.

The government started paying the loan in 2001 and is scheduled to pay an average US$2 million a year until 2014.

It is the group’s assertion that the annual payment of the debt of US$2M should be re-channeled to much needed health services, specifically funding for safe waste treatment and disposal of public hospitals and other health care facilities’ infectious wastes.

In 1999, Philippines successfully banned the use of incinerators for general wastes and subsequently the use of incinerators for medical waste in 2003 “which process emits poisonous and toxic fumes” with the approval of the CAA. The country remains the only country in the world to ban incinerators.

According to the group of environmentalists, “We are paying for supposedly state-of-the-art medical waste incinerators that were proven to be substandard and emitting dioxins way beyond the limit set by CAA. One of these incinerators, for instance, scandalously emitted nine times the limit for particulate matter, twelve times the limit set for hydrogen chloride, almost double the limit for lead and 870 times the limit for dioxins and furans compared to the CAA threshold.”

Alternatives everywhere
HCWH-SEA highlighted the presence of alternatives to incineration which are far safer. They cited several hospitals who for years have used the basics of waste management. These are waste minimization, segregation, proper training and knowledge of safe non-burn treatment systems and technologies. .

“There is no need for us to go back to incineration.” according to Merci Ferrer of HCWH-SEA. “What DOH and other government agencies concerned on wastes should do is sustain their efforts in monitoring the compliance of health care facilities on proper health care waste management and be vigilant on the resurgence of incinerators in the guise of pyrolisis, plasma, thermal oxidizer…”

Sonia G. Astudillo, HCWH-SEA, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA, +63 9209056113, merci@hcwh.org