Incinerator broken, medical waste piles up at K.H.M.H.

In an age when a stranger can tell your lifestyle by looking in your garbage, it’s a good idea to keep it locked away. That goes double for a hospital whose medical waste may pose a grave danger to a curious public. Today News Five was called out to the yard adjacent to the Central Medical Lab on Princess Margaret Drive where we witnessed piles of hospital garbage being carted away by Belize Waste Control. Clearly visible in the refuse was blood and other material that would normally be incinerated, and workmen indicated that several body parts may have formed part of previous loads. It seems the incinerator at the K.H.M.H. broke down sometime last week and until it is repaired medical waste must be burned at the Belize Waste Control incinerator on the Western Highway. A hospital spokesman told News Five that in such a situation the bagged garbage should be held in a securely locked container, preferably indoors. In this case those precautions may not have been taken because of the large volume which has piled up and the fact that several other government medical facilities are also dumping their toxic refuse at the laboratory site. Although a security guard does patrol the compound this does not insure that animals or even humans do not have access to the dangerous materials.