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IT is a daily occurrence to see black smoke being emitted from the chimneys at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.

And following a recent letter to the editor from Satish Nakched, The Fiji Times followed up with an investigation into the smoke that poses an obstruction for the nearby residents of Waimanu Rd.

A common belief is that the smoke is a product from body parts being incinerated in the hospital.

Minister of Health and Medical Services, Jone Usamate clarified “the incinerator at CWM burns all clinical waste produced at the hospital”.

“The selection of type of wastes that should be incinerated follows international standards for infection control and disposal of clinical waste,” Mr Usamate said.

Clinical waste includes blood, tissue, human organs and other body parts.

“Incineration occurs in a controlled environment where items are incinerated at a very high temperature to kill all microorganisms in the waste.

“Incinerators are used in hospitals all over the world and are the chosen method to dispose of the waste as it keeps the chances of spreading disease and infection to a minimum.”

by: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=334379

 

incinerators to install on the island of Aruba.
the island does not have medical waste & other waste incinerators.
we are in the process of exploring the feasabilty and setting up an incinerator facility
on the island of Aruba.
this is an island of 120.000 habitants.
we have 2 hospitals,more then 20 dentist offices,and over 50 doctor offices.
would it be possible to give us info on the capacity of incinerator we need
on this island.

THE SMOKELESS INCINERATOR FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSE, IN LAGOS NIGERIA
WE WANT TO KNOW THE CAPACITY OF THE EQUIPMENT, HOW MUCH LOAD OF WASTE CAN IT BURN AT A PARTICULAR TIME AND FOR HOW LONG, AND THE TYPE OF ENERGY REQUIRED FOR THE OPERATION. PRICE INCLUDING SHIPMENT
for the destruction of the followings:
Polyester, polypropylene, polystyrene, vinyl acetate plastic, synthetic plastics,
natural rubber, synthetic rubber, polyurethane sheet, and bulky films, solids and
– particles that can be easily sorted
– Items that easily degenerate such as paper, wood, leather and garbage
– Chemical waste solids and liquids, waste oil and other difficult-to-handle items

Medical Waste Incinerator

Manual load twin chamber incinerator for medical waste to burn 50kg/hr on continuous operation, with Primary temperature in the region of 800degC minimum and 1200degC or more in the Secondary chamber, complete with charging door, Ash door, Air and view ports, auxiliary air system with adjustable dampers, burners and burner control system and ignition unit, the whole to meet NEMA requirements and other international standards.

 

INCINERATOR, DIESEL.

CAPACITY : Burner 150 kg/hr.

Quantity : Two [2] with complete accessories.

Types of wastes being used: GENERAL WASTE

The  machines will be certified for operation from PME after passing site investigations.

The technical details we care about are:

–          Capacity (burning capacity of waste per hour). 150kg/hour.

–          Build materials, 5mm High quality mild steel construction ; 100 mm high quality refractory lining.

–          High Temperature paint finish

–          Up to 150 KG/Hrs.

–          Consumption of power and fuel.

–          Ash removal odor

–          Automatic curing process temperature controlled chamber.

–          Secondary chamber

–          Others.

we produce small scale waste incinerators, the capacity from 10kgs,20kgs,30kgs,50kgs,100kgs per hour.

Key Features:
* All models with Dual combustion chamber.
* Stainless Steel chimney/stack, long lifetime.
* High temperature, long lifetime of incinerator.
* Free or minimum installation on site.
* High burn rate, from 10kgs to 600kgs per hour, up to 10ton per day.
* PLC Control Plane for Intelligent operation.
* New Design for pet animal cremation business.
* One year warranty on incinerator and parts in stock.

In a bid to bring a partial relief from the mounting waste disposal issues, a new incinerator will begin functioning at the Kozhikode Medical College soon. Authorities say that the new incinerator will become operational by the first week of August.

The incinerator has been installed using the fund from the Hospital Development Society (HDS).

HDS member Saleem Madavoor told ‘City Express’ that the society has allotted `15 lakh towards the expenses that will be acquired for the installation works. Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation Limited(SIDCO), a state government undertaking has been entrusted with the works.

An official of the medical college said that an expert team, deputed by SIDCO, has visited the medical college to review the primary arrangements.

The work order has been given to SIDCO and an agreement was signed between the medical college authorities and SIDCO officials three months back.

The medical college official added that the works of the incinerator are completed and installation works will start within few days.  When the new incinerator begins operating, the waste disposal issues will be partially addressed. The incinerator which has a capacity of burning 150 kg of waste, will dispose of the residue generated from the medical college hospital.

Meanwhile, the medical college will continue to grapple with the waste being generated from the Institute of Maternal and Child Health (IMCH) and Super Specialty block as the incinerator for these blocks, which have been proposed at a cost of `63.5 lakh by the state government still remains on papers. If the incinerator becomes a reality around 5,000 kg of waste can be disposed everyday.

info from: http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/Waste-Woes-Medical-College-Gets-Partial-Relief/2015/07/17/article2924500.ece

The permit that allows the Radford Army Ammunitions Plant to burn hazardous waste from firearms outdoors is up for renewal. Community activists see an opportunity to address environmental and health concerns about the open burning – and state regulators see a chance to explore new technology to solve an old problem.
Just a handful of people turned at the Blacksburg Public Library on a recent afternoon for a meeting of the Environmental Patriots of the New River Valley.

“Is there anything we could post to get more people involved? Yes, petitions, a letter campaign… When the EPA was pushed to the wall in Louisiana, they said ‘Uncle.’ So, we want you Senator Kaine and you Senator Warner to do just what Senator Vitter did in Louisiana and write to the EPA and ask them, ‘How is this not a violation of the clean air act?'”

Devawn Oberlender is looking to take a pager from the book of a far away town, where citizen protestors succeeded in stopping outdoor burning explosives of arms and weapons waste at the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant.

“The opportunity that we have right now only comes up very ten years, because the permit is good for ten years, so what we need to replicate is what they did in north western Louisiana at Camp Minden.

There they formed a “Stop the Burn” movement that ultimately brought together elected officials, state and local regulators and the army for a plan to give up open burning and use a modern indoor incinerator to dispose of the toxic materials. Now, with the open burning permit at the Radford Arsenal up for renewal, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is exploring that idea for the first time. William Hayden is spokesman for DEQ in Virginia.

“We have not reached any conclusions yet but that is something that would be looked at as we move forward. We have asked the Arsenal to come up with alternatives to open burning and we do expect to have some options that go beyond the idea of just burning it the open.”

Brian Salvatore is a professor of Organic chemistry at Louisiana State University who argued for using contained incineration.

“This is what we fought for here at camp Minden. And yes it added another 15million dollars and almost doubled the cost of the contract but this was something that, the EPA was willing to go to bat for us for. So I’m glad that the people in the EPA and in the state worked together here and they worked with the Army as well to find the additional money. And we’re quite satisfied here that this alternative — which, in the beginning of this we didn’t know all the details of what these modern incinerators can do. We’re quite confident here that this is going to do the job and the amount of material that’s going to be released total will be on the order of tens of grams as opposed to tons of these emissions.”

A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 3, which includes Virginia, said it could not comment on the possibility of incinerators like that being adopted at the Radford site, but a spokesperson for BAE Systems, the contractor in charge of the arsenal, confirmed it is “looking for viable alternatives to its current methods of waste disposal.”

The department of Environmental Quality has asked BAE to conduct an environmental impact study on its current open burning practice. William Hayden says it’s the first time DEQ has asked for one.

“Because we’re getting in to an issue that has generated a lot of public interest in the Radford area we knew that the more information we had, the better. People from the public have been asking for us information; they’ve been asking Radford (the arsenal) for information.”

And one of them is Oberlender who says, “We’ve been burning waste out there, open burning it since 1941. You know, it’s not going away.”

And neither are the environmental patriots of the new river valley. Taking another page from the story of Camp Minden Louisiana’s successful effort to get its outdoor burning moved indoors. They’re scheduling meetings with state and federal officials to keep the pressure on. The first is this Friday with U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith who sits on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has oversight of the EPA. The group is looking to make a national issue out of one that has for so long been so local and one of the few places where open burning of hazardous waste from explosives is still allowed.

Info from: http://wvtf.org/post/moving-forward-open-burning

 

CPASA (Community Partners Against Substance Abuse) Director Dawn Conerton was thrilled to announce the new purchase.

She confirmed the organization was able to use money from its reserves to help with the purchase. However, CPASA is still looking for donations to help make up the cost and also to help with the upkeep of equipment.

The incinerator is located at the Princeton Police Department. A fence and a shelter still needs to be built around the incinerator before it’s used.

As previously reported in the BCR and the Putnam County Record, the state made the decision to no longer dispose of prescription drugs, forcing CPASA to look into the purchase of an incinerator to continue its program, which allows residents to dispose of their unused prescription medications in a safe manner.

The cost of the incinerator came to around $10,000.

Since CPASA’s formation in July 2010, it has worked to keep unused prescription drugs off the street. Since September 2014, the program has collected and disposed of about 7,235 pounds of drugs.

Conerton explained how CPASA has worked hard to get the incinerator to help maintain the P2D2 program.

She said with the incinerator, CPASA will be able to continue educating the public about the safe way to dispose of drugs and remind them not to flush medication into the water supply.

“It hurts the water supply, and we also are getting them out of cupboards to prevent them from getting into the wrong hands,” she said. “We now have a way to actually dispose of them completely.”

With the incinerator, CPASA now plans to host more collection days to help get rid of even more unused medications.

Princeton Police Chief Tom Root was also thrilled with the arrival of the incinerator. He explained the incinerator can get up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and takes about 20 minutes to burn down the material. The drugs are burned down to a fine powder, which is bagged and taken to the landfill.

The incinerator arrived at about the right time, as Root said there is currently about 1,500 pounds of pills to dispose of from the Bureau and Putnam counties area.

Root said CPASA plans to charge a fee to communities who don’t provide a donation for the incinerator. The fees will help maintain the incinerator and help keep up with the purchase of diesel fuel.

CPASA is still looking for donations to help make up for the cost of the incinerator and to help continue the work CPASA does throughout the year.

“CPASA appreciates all the donations. We would never have believed in such a short amount of time this would be a reality,” Conerton said. “This community is so awesome with their support and knowing how important it was to help. It’s widespread and something that’s going to help everyone.”

CPASA is also hosting a fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 1, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Zearing Park. More details to come on the event.

information from: http://www.bcrnews.com/2015/07/10/cpasa-success-up-in-smoke/azhjtuw/

WAMBA, Kenya, June 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Poor weather, security threats and bad roads have made disposing of the Wamba district hospital’s medical waste a challenge.

The nearest incinerator is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) away and “travelling was not possible during heavy rains because connecting roads were cut off by floods,” said Stephen Lesrumat, a medic at the hospital.

But now the north-central Kenyan hospital has a solution to its problems, and a way of cutting climate changing emissions and deforestation: A high-efficiency medical waste incinerator that uses just a fifth the fuel of a traditional incinerator.

The wood burner, which takes advantage of powerful winds in the region to drive the flames, borrows technology from fuel-efficient stoves. It can safely eliminate waste produced by the Wamba hospital and by 22 other health centres in Samburu County, said Lesrumat and Ibrahim Lokomoi, the facility’s engineer.

“It has reduced the burden of travelling outside the county to get rid of medical waste,” Lesrumat said, sparing hospitals a potentially dangerous build-up of medical waste during periods when roads are impassible.

During previous flood periods, when hospital waste could not be transported, “I was worried because the waste is toxic,” Lesrumat said. “It could cause health and environment damage if it accidentally spilled into the community.”

Run-ins with al Shabaab militants can also be a hazard for some medical workers in Kenya driving long distances in their jobs, medics said.

“Northern Kenya is very expansive and has so many challenges that the government struggles to deliver services,” said Onyango Okoth the assistant commissioner of Samburu County.

Now the Wamba incinerator handles between 5 and 20 kilograms of medical waste a day.

As the burner operates, a young worker clad in protective clothing flips open the lid of the chamber to monitor the process of incineration.

Seeing the last batch of waste is almost eliminated, he reaches for a barrel containing an assortment of used rubber gloves, syringes and polythene waste, pours in some of the waste, mixes it with a forked rod and then replaces the lid to allow the incineration to continue.

The Centers for Diseases Control in Kenya estimates that every patient admitted in a hospital generates at least 0.5 kilograms of medical waste. The National Environment Management Authority requires every health facility to dispose of medical waste through incineration.

SOLAR INCINERATION?

The next step, Kenyan clean energy experts say, may be to begin incinerating waste using even more sustainable sources of energy, such as solar power.

“Kenya is investing heavily in alternative energy sources,” said Johnson Kimani of the Kenya Climate Change Working Group. “Solar and biogas should be factored into medical waste incineration if the government is committed to its pledge of achieving a green economy.”

James Lebasha, of the International Medical Corps, which helped construct the Wamba incinerator, said the burner may be just the first for the region.

“We hope to build more units in morthern Kenya to enable communities access this service,” he said. (Reporting by Kagondu Njagi; editing by Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women’s rights, trafficking and corruption. Visit www.trust.org/climate)

from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/30/kenya-medical-energy-idUSL8N0ZG1M220150630