“The J&K State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) last week seized a truckload of infections bio-medical waste collected from various hospitals while it was being unloaded at a scrap dealer establishment here. Police has arrested a person and started investigations in this regard.

Officials, acting on a tip off, seized the truck of Kashmir Healthcare Systems, Lassipora Pulwama, at Baba Demb. They said its driver was selling the bio-medical waste including used syringes, bandages, drip-sets and surgical gloves collected from various hospitals to a scrap dealer there.”

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2010/Nov/5/spcb-busts-hospital-waste-racket-31.asp

Clearly, robust regulatory action is needed in these circumstances, though the causes leading to such events may be particularly complex, comprising poverty and lack of resources that act as the driver for this criminal action.

Interesting too to consider the photograph that accompanied this news report, which shows [presumably untreated] syringes gathered together in a hessian sack!