KANGAR – The Raja Muda of Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail said efforts to preserve the environment should be escalated at all levels of society.
He said immediate implementation to increase the efficiency of clinical waste management must be made to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“For example, face masks used by the public should be discarded in (normal) dustbins, while face masks used by medical personnel or patients at health institutions should be managed in accordance with the legislative procedure of the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.
“It is not limited to only face masks, but also injection needles, tissue papers, plastics and clinical contaminations, and so on.
Clinical waste should be disposed of daily, otherwise pollution problems will surface, including the risk of transmission of disease, he added.
The Tuanku Syed Putra Foundation chairman was speaking at a programme in conjunction with World Environment Day 2021, which is celebrated on June 5 every year. The theme this year is “Ecosystem recovery”.
Perlis Environment Department director Azman Shah Ismail said currently, there are 44 government and private health institutions that generate clinical waste in the state, and they are all monitored by the department.
He said based on Scheduled Wastes Management System records, there is an increase of more than 10% of clinical waste production in the state every year due to the increasing number of patients and, now, existence of state vaccination centres.
Among the biggest environmental issues in the world today are air pollution, climate change, deforestation, extinction of species, land degradation and population density.
Up until the 20th century, the number of human population around the world was some 1.6 billion.
But now, the figure has reached almost 7.5 billion, and is expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050. – The Vibes, June 5, 2021
