From: Ian blenkharn@ianblenkharn.com
Category: News & information
Date: 03 Dez 2009
Time: 18:42:21 +0100
Remote Name: 86.133.221.110
The Department of Health has sponsored a consultation, to be managed by the environment and engineering consultancy WSP Environmental, to reexamine some of the issues that are causing concern regarding the Local Authority disposal of clinical wastes arising in the community.
The focus is to seek Local Authority feedback on issues relating to infectious or offensive waste arising in the home, either as a result of treatment by a healthcare professional or self treatment.
As most of us might agree, the current HTM 07:01 is in great part badly flawed, having suffered greatly from heavy pressure to adopt an Environment Agency ideological approach to waste management that had little foundation in science or in practical application. The construct of the bulk of the document leaves much to be desired and is of no credit to those involved in its drafting. Perhaps finally the Department of Health has bowed to pressure and taking steps to correct at least some of the issues.
Perhaps the DoH will also look critically at what went wrong, who was responsible, and how much money has been wasted so far. This should include also an assessment of teh consequential costs to waste producers and to the disposal industry.
The consultation seems to be directed particularly to Local Authorities, but I think comments from those who have some experience of disposal difficulties would ensure that the hot issues are identified and properly addressed. An online survey that is really for Local Authority input is available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yzb4GumHf_2beTzcXeBfazCw_3d_3d where you will also find an email address for comments.