CHENNAI: Large amounts of medical waste were found dumped in a cricket ground in Nazarathpettai, a village near Poonamallee, on Sunday. Residents say till date, they had only seen house waste being dumped around the ground. This is the first time medical waste is being spotted here.
"Several times, we have protested and sent back lorries that comes to dump waste in the afternoon. This, however, seems to have happened in the night," said Senthil Kumar, a resident. Since the ground, which is just adjacent to the Outer Ring Road, is used for local cricket tournaments, residents ensure it is maintained properly. But this missed their eye.
Guesstimates are that the disposed waste could weigh around 100 kg. Some of the tablets and syrups still looked new with unbroken seals, while many bottles were burned completely. Some of the tablets found were Paracetamol 650, Speedex, Thioford and Feron. A few of these tablets had the label ‘Everon Healthcare’ on it.
The stench of medicines and chemicals was unbearable. Broken syrup bottles and syringes were scattered everywhere. As this medical waste is uncollected for a long time, chances that this can be misused by quacks are also high, say activists.
Just next to the medical waste, cows were seen nibbling on the heaps of municipal garbage. Senthil Kumar said the Municipality itself dumps waste here, and they must have been aware of the medicinal waste too. "We have given three complaints, but they still continue to dump waste here," he said
Meanwhile, Pugalventhan, who spotted the dump on Saturday, too, has written a complaint to the Tamil Nadu Drugs Control Department urging to book the offenders. "I spotted waste in the same spot on January but it was very little and I thought the Municipality will remove it. But over the months, this has become a regular dumping spot," said Pugalventhan. The issue was the same in Thiruneermalai Lake when large a mounts of medical waste was dumped.
However, after complaints and newspaper reports, Drug Control officials inspected the spot to clear it off. "If medical waste is dumped inside the city, the vehicle will be identified easily. So it is being dumped only in the suburbs as people won’t know here," added Pugalventhan.
When Express brought this to the attention of Poonamallee Municipality, officials said the cricket ground shall be cleaned soon and the waste samples would be handed over to drug control department for further investigation.