The stating effects of Hurricane Sandy will be felt for many months, and right now the great clean-up is no doubt at full speed.
The clean-up requires lots of hard work, rebuilding and/or cleaning that which can be salvaged. But evacuated New York hospitals have to contend also with red bag infectious clinical (medical) waste in their flooded basements!
As the NY Post reported on October 30th, “One official said…at NYU there is medical waste floating in the basement.” Hurricane Sandy has created a potential public health risk at area hospitals that don’t have on-site medical waste treatment equipment. Traffic and low fuel supplies exacerbate the ability for hospitals to truck their medical waste to treatment facilities, which are located hours away from the region.
PR Newswire
Without doubt, we wish them all well in the struggle to regain a degree of safety and normality. And for those having to clean up the additional and hazardous wastes that remain after flood waters have gone, we wish them the very best. It is not a pleasant, or safe, task at all.
And what of the ‘rules’ of managing those wastes? Of course, the rules for management of regulated medical waste (clinical waste) have sailed off and gone down the Swanee, or is it the Hudson, river? Do those rules still apply? Can they? At times like this, it is essential that the clean-up continues as quickly and safely as possible, but there are circumstances where a prompt clean-up necessitates some deviation from those core rules. That was necessitated after Hurricane Catrina and may be necessitated in New York also. For a few days perhaps, for a few specific tasks, with a prompt return to the normal standards of performance as soon as the crisis is reduced.
Embedding flexibility into future legislation, in order to permit the temporary setting aside or suspension of environmental and other policies, may free those responsible for the immediate delivery of disaster relief from the political and legal pitfalls that may occur when established legislation impedes the effective flow of emergency aid. That includes the provision of relief to New York citizens, getting their hospitals back into operation as quickly as possible. That may be dangerous, risking the health and safety of those tasks with this particular clean-up. The environment has been contaminated to a degree never considered when the rules that shape waste management operations were proposed. For the briefest period, some variation may be necessitated, though with an early return to normal standards of operation at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, let’s hope that a waste regulation jobsworth doesn’t make things ever more difficult.