High Court to hear plea on treating masks as medical waste

Chandigarh, April 23

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today agreed to hear through video-conferencing a petition filed in public interest for treating masks and gloves collected from residents as medical waste.

It will now be placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli on April 24. In his petition, advocate Abhayjeet Singh also sought directions to the respondents to issue guidelines for use and disposal of masks, gloves and other protective gear as contaminated articles pose “greater risk to environment and health, if not handled properly”.

He added that steps were also required to be taken for prohibiting and make spitting in public a punishable offence. “Similarly, the issue of medical waste being generated in bulk due to the pandemic needs to be entertained at the earliest,” he added. Abhayjeet stated that several districts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have been included in the red zone and declared a hotspot. However, increased public use of masks and gloves during the Covid crisis was leading to an increase in medical waste “contaminated by bodily fluids”.

Referring to a WHOreport, he contended that it showed that the virus could survive for days on surfaces. If masks, gloves and other protective gear were not collected and treated according to the guidelines issued for collection and disposal of medical waste, lives and environment would be put to risk. — TNS