Editorial
Disposal of medical waste in Ghana …a harmful practice to the public
Dear Editor,
Medical waste is a dangerous waste generated by hospitals, clinics, health-care centres, laboratories and many others. This waste is usually generated during medical research, testing, diagnosis, immunisation or treatment of either human beings or animals. Some examples are culture dishes, glassware, bandages, gloves, discarded sharps like needles or scalpels, tissues and many more. Before the 1980, the regulations around medical waste were pretty loose.
Due to the hazardous nature of medical waste, it must be properly treated and disposed of to avoid possible contamination. Even though waste in general needs to be treated properly, medical waste needs extra attention and treatment. After all, medical waste placed in a domestic or council waste bins, must be disposed of properly.
Also, items that have been saturated and have more than trace amounts of body fluids need to be properly contained, treated, and disposed of as they carry the potential risk of spreading diseases and viruses.
Incineration is done with a machine called incinerator. This is a commonly used method, however, it generates harmful substances such as dioxin, and others.
While incineration of medical waste generates harmful substances such as dioxin and furan, steam sterilisation (autoclave) is environmental -friendly, mature and most economical non- incineration technology to process medical waste. The preferred method with the least impact on the environment is having it treated by autoclave. These devices use pressurised air and steam to sterilise the waste and can be used to treat 90 per cent of medical waste. It was founded in 1995 and it is the leading supplier of medical waste treatment in China. It is to provide clients a comprehensive medical waste treatment solution, one-stop supplying and high quality products with latest technology. The disposal capacity of a single autoclaves is from 1 -20 tonnes per day and free combination of autoclaves and full automatisation of the plant is available.
With the placenta and other human “tissues”, the law says it must be incinerated at a high temperature or buried at a significant depth and not to be placed in domestic or council waste bin.
Improving waste collection coverage of municipal areas, introducing mass community awareness raising and information campaigns will help to address negative community attitudes towards waste management.
Serwaa Marfo
Student, Ghana Institute of Journalism
Dear Editor,
I wish to use this esteemed platform to urge the traditional councils of Osu and La to call for independent investigation into the recent demolition exercise at Kaajaano.
The exercise rendered hundreds homeless.
Information about the reason for the demolition has been scanty with those desiring to know feeding heavily on social media posts.
One particular name –Jato, has been associated with it but under whose instruction the exercise was carried is also not known.
Sadly, instead of getting to know who ordered the demolition and for what reasons, traditional authorities of Osu and La have been embroiled in a tug-of-war over ownership of the said land.
This is premature. At this moment, they should call for investigation into the exercise to know the people behind it.
When that is done, then discussions about the owners of the site can begin. That would end the posture of the two neighbouring town which has the potential to turn into something else.
Ataa Osa Mensah,
Osu
Dear Editor,
I wish to use your respected platform to draw the attention of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to the behaviour of traders and some drivers about the use of lower denomination coins, specifically the 20 and 10 pesewas.
About two weeks ago, I read in your sister newspaper, The Ghanaian Times about this problem and the caution that followed from the BoG and some economic analysts.
The warning they gave was that the continuous rejection of the notes could create pricing problems which can eventually affect inflation.
I thought that would put to bed that practice or refusal to accept the coins when given out as change or use to pay for particular service.
Unfortunately, the problem still persist among traders, drivers, customers and passengers alike. Only last week, there was as altercation in the Accra Central area where a woman refused to accept five 20 pesewas note totaling one cedi.
As the argument continued, the trader decided not to sell to the customer again after by-standers explained to her that it was still a legal tender and those that refused it could become offenders.
This is an issue the BoG and other regulatory agencies must go and explain to the people and let them know that it is unlawful not to accept a currency that is still in use.
It nothing was done, it could create a much more serious problems.
Mary Osei Badu,
Swedru
