IMAGE to manage biomedical waste at exam centres

Teachers on school exam duty asked to use surgical gloves

IMAGE (Indian Medical Association Goes Eco-friendly) will be managing the biomedical waste generated at the centres where examinations for SSLC, Plus One and Plus Two will be held in the State in the backdrop of the COVID-19 threat. This follows the direction for using surgical gloves by all teachers who will be on examination duty.

All students in quarantine will also be taking the examinations. Gloves are prescribed as teachers will be touching the answer sheets from students while collecting and stacking and preparing the bundles from each examination centre.

According to Sharafudeen K.P., secretary, IMAGE, Common Biomedical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility, the General Education department has requested IMAGE to handle the waste that will be generated at the 3,000 plus examination centres in 20,217 classrooms under 41 district educational centres.

Gloves

It is learnt that both latex and the non-recyclable nitrile golves (blue gloves) will be provided for use. While IMAGE will handle the latex gloves, the blue gloves will be handed over to KEIL, the toxic sold disposal facility, Kalamassery, after being disinfected at IMAGE Plant.

Gloves have been procured by Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd. According to Dr. Sharafudeen, there is no technology to dispose the blue gloves that are being imported from China.

The barcoded and colour coded bags separately for use on each day of examination were supplied by Monday. An estimated total of five lakh surgical gloves would be to be disposed by IMAGE for conducting all examinations, said Dr. Sharafudeen.

Spike in waste

Meanwhile, IMAGE had been collecting over three tonnes of biomedical waste across the State, a spike that has happened in recent times, as the number of active cases had soared taking the number of patients to over 300.

Compared to 250 to 500 gm of biomedical waste generated per bed, a SARS-CoV-2 patient generates nearly 14 kg of biomedical waste.

This includes all the personal protection equipment worn by the healthcare professionals and cleaning workers attending to the patient’s needs.

The biomedical waste generated in hospitals had come down by more than 10 tonnes to 30 tonnes a day during the lockdown. However, with hospitals restarting services, the waste generated has gone up to 38 tonnes a day.

The capacity of the IMAGE Plant in Kanjikode is to process 42 tonnes a day. So far there had been no backlog of waste disposal, said Dr. Sharafudeen. However, if the number of SARS-CoV-2 patients continues to increase in the present trend along with reduced number of discharges, there could be a backlog in disposing the waste, he added.

On May 24, the total collection of biomedical waste was 3,229 kg. From the time IMAGE started collecting waste, 1,20,062 kg were collected in 66 days.