PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT?
Donation of Drugs
AIM Sarajevo, 15, November, 1996
On the territory of the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina, there is about 750 ton and in Republica Srpska there is another 60 ton of drugs in stock, shelf life of which has expired and which must be destroyed - these are the data of the World Health Organization (WHO) office seated in Sarajevo. Pharmaceutical waste weighing about 810 ton stored on the territory of B&H is the inheritance of the past war during which, mostly Western, donors sent aid in drugs a part of which could not be used. According to the assessments of the mentioned organization, 80 per cent of these donations were usable, while 20 per cent were drugs the shelf life of which had expired and drugs which were not needed (e.g. against malaria and similar tropical diseases). According to the words of one of the officials of the WHO, destruction of medical waste and drugs costs 1500 German marks in the west, so that it is possible that certain donors had used the war in B&H to get rid of their pharmaceutical waste.
Nevertheless, Heidi Schmidt, who has been engaged on the job with the WHO since 1993, says that drugs were sent to Bosnia & Herzegovina with the best intentions. But:
"Those who donate drugs must also send data about the donated drugs. In approximately 40 per cent of cases, these data were insufficient, often in illegible hand-writing with only the name of the drug and the quantity, without data on shelf life and other information. Communications with Sarajevo were bad and it was complicated to ask for new lists. Delivery of donations to B&H was hard and slow - drugs sometimes travelled for four months", says Heidi Schmidt.
And that is how it came about, as Azra Selmanovic confirms, head of the main pharmacy of the Sarajevo Clinical Centre Kosevo, trailer trucks arrived one after the other with drugs a small portion of which could be used:
"The situation was bad, and drugs necessary, but among five hundred boxes, just a few were proper."
Nowadays, these boxes form waste which practically cannot be destroyed anywhere. It cannot be returned to the donors for the simple reason that neighbouring countries do not allow transportation of hazardous waste over their territories. Obviously, they were not "hazardous" when they were transported in the opposite direction, towards Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The WHO, headed by Tim Grayling since spring this year, is trying to resolve the problem, but unsuccessfully. According to his words, different drugs can be destroyed in different ways. Infusion solutions can be mixed with water and simply spilled into the sewerage, drugs made on biological basis can be buried, but what about drugs which must be burnt in special furnaces. These are furnaces for destroying drugs and all other kinds of medical waste, which develop temperatures up to 1100 degrees Celsius, and have filters for purification of developed gases. One such furnace costs about one and a half million dollars! Grayling states the possibility of using thermal power plants for this purpose, but filters should be added for gases which are developed by burning drugs. At the moment, the possibility of using the thermal power plant in Kakanj is investigated.
At the same time while a solution is sought for the remaining waste, the question is what has so far been destroyed and how it was done. Accurate records, of course, do not exist. It is known that drugs were destroyed in an inadequate furnace of the Clinical Centre of Kosevo in Sarajevo. Grayling claims that it was not harmful for peole and the environment, if there had been no cancer drugs among them. After burning, the waste was transported to the city dump.
Regardless of all statements of the officials, the procedure with this kind of waste in the world is well known, and how serious protests individual affairs caused. In the case of Bosnia & Herzegovina, as if everything was permissible, even to create a pharmaceutical waste dump in it.
MIRSAD FAZLIC