Chandigarh: The incinerator at the PGIMER had long outlived its lifespan of 10 years. The 19-year-old incinerator therefore keeps conking out thereby piling up the biomedical waste. In the absence of an incinerator with GMCH Sector 32, which generates 400-500 kg of biomedical waste every day, the PGIMER often refuses to process their waste in their incinerator. This has been forcing the GMCH to dump the toxic waste in and around the sewerage there. Though the GMCH authorities deny that the toxic waste is dumped elsewhere, TOI last month found used needles and syringes in the sewerage at the GMCH, which clogged the drainage system. Principal director of GMCH sector 32 Dr A K Janmeja said that they sent the biomedical waste generated by the hospital to the PGIMER for processing on a daily basis. "The pollution board norms are not allowing us to set up a separate incinerator in the hospital. So, we are depending on PGIMER. Even though the hospital is not facing any issues in sending the biomedical waste to PGIMER, recently when there was a technical snag in the incinerator, the hospital did face a problem." He further added, "After taking special permission from Haryana government, the biomedical waste of the hospital was sent to an Ambala-based hospital." The PGIMER wants to buy a new incinerator, but it has not been given clearance for the same by the Chandigarh Pollution Control Board (CPCB). "We are waiting for the environment clearance from the board," said Manju Wadwalkar, spokesperson of PGIMER. Also, the toxic waste must be shredded and autoclaved before incineration to avoid any recycling of the waste. But none of the government hospitals have this facility. "As per the norms of the pollution board, we will give the autoclave facility to a private company for autoclaving and shredding," she said. Director CPCB Santosh Kumar also said that PGIMER has asked for the environment clearance to set up a new incinerator on the campus. However, the board denied it. "As per the new guidelines of the Government of India, a common incinerator can be set up within the radius of 75 km of the city for all hospitals and a private company has already sought the permission for setting up an incinerator." He further said that the Government of India also made recommendation that pollution board should give the permission to the common incinerator rather than individual machine for the hospitals. After the installation of a common incinerator in the city, the issue will be resolved for all health institutes. Health is wealth - According to a WHO report, around 85% of the hospital wastes are actually nonhazardous, 10% are infectious and 5% are noninfectious but hazardous. - According to Indian Society of Hospital Waste Management, the quantum of waste that is generated in India is estimated to be 1-2 kg per bed per day in a hospital and 600 gm per day per bed in a general practitioner's clinic. It is estimated that 20-25 % of total hazardous waste is biomedical waste. - The incinerator at PGIMER processes 150kg/hr of waste. The dual chamber incinerator needs sanitation workers to manually place the toxic waste inside the furnace. From PGI: Total no. of sanctioned beds at PGIMER| 1740 Observation beds | 208 Total quantity of biomedical waste generated (in kgs/day): 1416.2 Quantity of incinerable waste generated (in kgs/day): 863.1 Quantity of non incinerable waste generated (in kgs/day): 553.1