Ongole: Careless disposal of face masks poses health risks

Ongole: The lakhs of face masks being used by people every day now disposed of indiscriminately is posing a threat to public health. The Coronavirus or any disease can be transferred through the cough or sneeze of an infected person if the mask he used is not disposed of properly. The masks if thrown openly in public places or in uncovered waste bins can transmit diseases through air and if a sanitation worker touches it. The doctors advise the public to not dispose of the used masks in the open and suggest them to handover in a cover separately to the sanitation workers.

Due to the increased awareness on the risk of Novel Coronavirus and due to the fear of police on roads, almost forty percent of the people coming onto roads are now wearing disposable face masks, while others are using handkerchiefs and other clothes. The voluntary organisations and others have distributed lakhs of disposable face masks in each town in the last two weeks, and most of them are thrown onto the roads and garbage bins after usage.

The RIMS Ongole superintendent, Dr. D Sriramulu said that the masks, gloves and other personal protection materials used by the patients, doctors, supporting staff and collected from the people in the isolation and quarantine wards would be forwarded to the incinerator.

The Prakasam District Medical and Health Officer, Dr. S Appalanayudu said that the public, even if they were not infected by the Coronavirus, should not throw the used masks. He said that the used masks should be folded multiple times, without touching the inside and should be tied with the ear loops or a thread before disposing of. He explained that the masks should be placed in a cover in which bleaching powder is sprayed, and handed over separately to the sanitary workers for forwarding to the incinerators by the local body.

Dr. Eluri Ramachandra Reddy, founder of SRC Laboratories, observed that the public were throwing the medical waste like masks, syringes in drains and roads. He said that as there was no practice of domestic collection of medical waste, these masks were being collected by the sanitation workers with bare hands and being dumped at the waste yard posing threat to the people working in segregation. He said that the masks, syringes, cotton, and needles should be put in a bag and sprayed bleaching water.

Though there has been no practice of collecting medical waste domestically, they were advising the people in home isolation to keep separate covers for the medical waste, said P Niranjan Reddy, Commissioner, Ongole Municipal Corporation,. He appealed the other citizens also to fold the masks and treat them with bleach by placing them in separate covers. He said that the sanitary workers would keep separate baskets to collect those covers and forward them to the incinerator.