Medical waste dumped in street (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Medical waste dumped in street

11:24am Monday 6th June 2005 in

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MYSTERY surrounds how an open bag of clinical waste come to be dumped by the roadside in Highams Park.

The yellow bag, marked "For Incineration Only" could contain anything from infected dressings to incontinence pads and was left in easy reach of children and pets on the corner of Hickman Avenue and Larkshall Road on Tuesday morning.

Hale End and Highams Park councillor Matt Davis said: "That's outrageous. It's absolutely wrong that anyone should dump clinical waste in the street.

"It's a health hazard, especially for children. It's half term this week and they're all out and about digging into things."

The contents could easily spread disease but how it got there remains a mystery.

A spokeswoman for the Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust, which overseas doctors' surgeries and health centres in the borough, said: "Health centres in Waltham Forest use a clinical waste collection company to remove clinical waste from their buildings.

"The waste is collected in special boxes and plastic bags, depending on the item being disposed off with the name of the company (White Rose Environmental) printed on it.

"The waste is kept in a locked area inside the health centres until it is collected by the clinical waste collection company once a week."

A Whipps Cross University Hospital spokeswoman said that all of its waste was tied correctly and labelled and so it was unlikely to have come from the hospital or any of its clinics.

A council spokeswoman said: "The council does provide a clinical waste collection service.

"This is only for residents referred to us by healthcare workers, and is for the disposal of items such as incontinence pads.

"The bag was marked with the council logo and phone number and it has agreed to collect and dispose of it.