Waste caused by COVID-19 poses a threat, according to WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report to warn of one of the most neglected consequences of the pandemic: the thousands of tons of additional medical waste it has produced and which it fears will have a very negative impact on health and the environment. environment.

Disposable gloves, masks and gowns, used vaccine vials, needles and tests have generated waste that many health centers do not have the capacity to manage properly, which is a potential danger for health workers and nearby communities, warns the WHO.

The total amount of this pandemic garbage is difficult to calculate. The WHO recalls that only the shipments that left the United Nations for the most needy countries have represented some 87,000 tons of humanitarian protection equipment in the last two years, a volume that has almost entirely been transformed into waste.

This figure does not include equipment used outside of UN humanitarian initiatives, nor the billions of masks and other protective gear worn by people across the globe, so the true volume is clearly much higher.

On the other hand, the sheer number of administered vaccines also produces potentially harmful waste. When the report was prepared, it was calculated that the 8,000 million doses used up to that moment had produced an additional 143 million tons of waste, although currently there are around 10,000 million inoculated vaccines.

The WHO admits that the urgent need to get the largest possible number of protective equipment to the whole world meant that less attention and resources were put into managing the waste that these equipment generated.

30% of the world’s health facilities are still not adequately equipped to manage the waste they generate, including that derived from the fight against COVID-19, and that percentage increases to 60% in the case of less developed countries.

“COVID-19 forces the world to reflect on the shortcomings and the most forgotten aspects of the waste management system”, pointed out the director of the Environment, Climate Change and Health of the WHO, María Neira.

The inadequate treatment of this waste can expose health workers to infections, burns or injuries, while in communities near the places where it is sometimes deposited, buried or incinerated, it can contaminate the air, water or generate pests, warns the WHO.

The report offers several recommendations to tackle this problem, ranging from a reduction in packaging to greater use of reusable, recyclable or biodegradable material.

It also recommends greater investment in waste treatment systems that do not use the simple burning of this waste, such as autoclaves (devices that sterilize medical material), or in logistics networks that favor centralized management and, as far as possible, circulate waste. waste.