Hospital waste found on the shorelines of Lapu-Lapu City./ PHOTO COURTESY OF CESSNA ZOSA – SARMIENTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines–A private hospital in Mandaue City, and the service provider it hired to dispose of its medical wastes must be fined for violating several environmental provisions, state environmental officers said today.
The Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) recommended for Davao City Environmental Care Inc. (DCECI) and Chong Hua Hospital in Mandaue City to pay P250,000 and P110,000 in fines respectively, as penalty for violating provisions in the Revised Procedures and Standards for the Management of Hazardous Wastes.
This was the outcome of their investigation on the hospital wastes floating in the seas around Lapu-Lapu City last Saturday, January 5, the photos of which went viral on social media.
A copy of EMB-7’s status report was furnished to Cebu Daily News.
Based on the document, a technical conference was held among EMB-7 officials, and representatives from Chong Hua Hospital and DCECI last Monday, January 7.
The hospital wastes seen floating on the coasts last Saturday were traced to Chong Hua Hospital, which claimed in an earlier statement that they hired DCECI to dispose their trash.
“DCECI exceeded its allowable annual treatment capacity of eight metric tons. The TSD (treatment, storage, disposal) Facility shall not exceed the capacity indicated in the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), as such the subject wastes shall be treated within six months from the date of transport as indicated in the Hazardous Waste Manifest,” the report said.
The company, according to EMB-7, also did not have the prescribed documents or manifest forms that allow them to collect and dispose wastes from hospitals.
EMB -7 recommended a fine of P250,000 be slapped against DCECI.
Chong Hua Hospital in Mandaue City, on the other hand, will be fined P110,000 as penalty for not having the prescribed manifest forms, and irreconcilable data pertaining to the volume of trash they produced and transported for disposal.
Both DCECI and Chong Hua Hospital are given 15 days to submit their position paper to EMB-7./rcg