The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has trained healthcare service providers in the Tema Region on appropriate ways of segregating and managing biomedical waste to prevent the spread of harmful chemicals in the environment.
The training was also to help healthcare facilities in the country meet the EPA environmental permit, which required certain conditions to be implemented and empower the participants to educate their colleagues at their various workplaces.
Ms. Irene Opoku, Acting EPA Director, Greater Accra East Region, stated this at Tema during a two-day event organized to raise awareness and conscientize healthcare workers on the importance of managing waste appropriately and efficiently.
She said the Agency had plans to regularly hold such programmes for health facilities to upscale waste management practices.
Ms. Opoku cautioned health facilities to adhere to all steps spelled out in the EPA Guidelines for Management of Health and Veterinary Waste in Ghana (2002) to ensure that the highly infectious wastes were bagged separately and well-disposed of.
She mentioned that registration was required to acquire the EPA permit, urging people who needed the permit to go through all the necessary processes before obtaining it, and warned that the Agency would not relent in sanctioning anyone found operating without the permit.
Mr. Herbert Edem Kpodo, Principal Programme Officer, said there were various classifications of biomedical waste as well as non-healthcare waste, saying that although the wastes differ, they could all have a health impact when not managed well.
He said there was general waste, infection waste, sharp waste, patient waste, hazardous waste, and waste from heavy metals, among others.
He explained that when infectious heavy solid waste was mixed with general waste, it still became hazardous to human health.
