Biomedical waste disposal in the SCB Medical College and Hospital has almost come to a standstill over the last week due to the breakdown in the incinerator since the hailstorm of May 28. The chimney of the incineration unit in the biomedical waste disposal facility was blown away in the gale and has not been resurrected since then. As a result, the final disposal of the medical waste generated at the hospital and the attached ones like Sishu Bhawan and district headquarters hospitals of Dhenkanal, Angul, Jajpur, Puri and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar has been badly hit. The agency Mediaid, which has been entrusted with the job of handling and managing the biomedical waste, is now transporting the materials all the way to Rourkela, where it has another incineration unit. The situation on Tuesday drew the High Court-appointed Committee on Biomedical Waste led by amicus curiae PR Das and Dr PK Pradhan to visit the SCBMCH and take stock of the situation. A team of officials of the State Pollution Control Board also visited the hospital to inspect the incineration site. The SCBMCH generates over a quintal of incineration-able biomedical waste daily while the combined waste from all the facilities would be around half a tonne. Das said, the disruption in the incineration unit has had an impact on the bio-medical waste segregation at source and their disposal at the facility. The work on repair has been sluggish and to compound the problems, the microwave unit at the disposal site is also not functioning properly. “The incineration unit along with the autoclave and microwave have outlived their utility and need replacement. In 2010, there was a decision at the Government level to look into the proposals for replacing the units with the latest one. However, this has not progressed beyond the proposal stage since,” Das rued. Hospital authorities, however, expressed confidence that the chimney would be repaired and start normal operations in the next couple of days. “Two sections of the chimney have been resurrected and only the last one remains. Incineration started on Tuesday but at a minimal strength considering the low level at which the fumes permeate,” senior hospital manager Dr Srikanta Mohapatra said.