The radiation that took place at a crowded industrial area in Delhi should make the authorities sit up and introspect. If, as is suspected, the Cobalt-60 came from waste from a city hospital, this is shocking. For more than a decade, the government has been talking of safe disposal of hospital waste and the use of incinerators, but it is patently clear that safe disposal is not being done. While the problem has got highlighted because those who were exposed to the Cobalt found their skin turning black, who knows how many others are suffering due to hospital waste not being incinerated — this includes the possible re-use of syringes, bandages and the like.
The other possibility, that the waste that is imported is even more frightening. Just some months ago, a ship that contained radioactive waste was allowed to come to the Alang shipbreaking yard in Gujarat. While the government has asked the ship’s agent to have it removed, in the past too, there have been controversies over various ships coming into the port for dismembering. The government needs to come out with a firm policy on this — India cannot become the dumping ground for the world’s waste, more so when it can even be toxic.
Sujata Puri, New Delhi
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