UN Human Rights Report Calls for An End to Medical Waste Incineration

Contact: Sonia G. Astudillo; +63 9189182369
Merci Ferrer; +63 9209056113


UN Human Rights Report Calls for An End to Medical Waste Incineration

Manila. Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) today praised an official report by a Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council that calls for an end to the incineration of medical waste in order to protect human health and the environment.

The report focuses on "the adverse effects that the unsound management and disposal of medical waste may have on the enjoyment of human rights." It details a broad range of human rights impacts derived from poor health care waste management in a diversity of countries.

"This is a ground breaking document," said Ruth Stringer, International Science and Policy Coordinator for HCWH and author of the HCWH submission to the process. "Not only does the Special Rapporteur document heinous conditions in around the world, but his recommendations call for a progressive series of actions to protect people’s right to health and a clean environment."

In his prepared statement to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur, Calin Georgescu called for "The replacement of incineration as a disposal method of hazardous medical waste with more environmentally-friendly and safe methods of disposal, such as autoclaving."

"The findings of the Special Rapporteur draw from clear scientific evidence and validate the direct experience of thousands of communities around the world who have suffered from the negative health impacts of medical waste incineration" said Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of HCWH South East Asia. “This is a very timely report especially for the Philippines where government officials are proposing the revival of incinerators by making medical waste as the primary excuse to do so.”
Affirming that "medical staff, patients, workers in support services linked to health-care facilities, workers in waste disposal facilities, recyclers, scavengers and the general public" are all impacted by medical waste, the Special Rapporteur also recommends dedicating greater financial resources to sustainable health care waste management. He further calls for the development of "a comprehensive international legal framework" to protect human health and the environment from the scourge of healthcare waste.

To complement the report from the Special Rapporteur, HCWH today publicly released its own report, which HCWH staff, with the assistance of network members and waste management experts across Africa, Asia and Latin America, assembled. It represents a large body of information which was submitted to the Special Rapporteur for his consideration. HCWH's submission was joined by submissions from the secretariat of the Basel Convention, the secretariat of the Stockholm Convention, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Centre for International Environmental Law.