Health Supervisors Conduct On-site Investigation: Hospital Waste Piles Up in the Yard
Recently, at a bungalow near the intersection of Dongsheng Street and Jingwei Road in Changchun City, dozens of bags of used IV bottles and expired medications were found piled up. Flies swarmed around the yard, and the stacked glass bottles resembled a small mountain. According to relevant regulations, the disposal of IV bottles for other purposes must not endanger human health. However, if these IV bottles, which are covered in blood stains, are sold to vendors selling sesame oil at three or four cents per bottle, then the safety of these bottles becomes an uncontrollable vacuum.
Blood-stained IV Bottles with Flies Buzzing Around
At the end of July, while passing through the alley near the intersection of Dongsheng Street and Jingwei Road, a resident of Changchun named Xiao Guo saw someone dumping residual medication from IV bottles in a yard. Some of the medication bottles still contained leftover powder, which was poured into a basin all at once. Xiao Guo was confused: is this method of handling medical waste allowed in residential areas?
Based on the address provided by Xiao Guo, the reporter visited this bungalow three times. The items in the yard were quite messy, with piles of IV bottles and other collected waste. There were four or five households living in the yard, one of which had its kitchen adjacent to the dirty IV bottles. In a basket of IV bottles, there were even traces of blood, with flies buzzing around them. People came and went in the yard, but they seemed to have become accustomed to this filthy environment.
IV Bottles Sold Individually for Three or Four Cents Each
During the investigation, the reporter found the owner of this pile of "garbage mountains." It was already evening, and the whole family was sitting together eating dinner. "Are the IV bottles in the yard yours?" At this moment, a middle-aged man sitting inside stood up, chewing his food loudly, and said, "We picked them up, so what?" "How do you plan to sell them?" Seeing the reporter's intention to buy, the middle-aged man immediately walked toward the yard, picking up two IV bottles lying on the ground and said, "These bottles come in different sizes, depending on what you need." The reporter expressed the intention to use them for sesame oil, and the man replied promptly, "Each bottle costs three or four cents. Tell us how many bottles you need, and I'll pick them out for you."
Then, the father of the middle-aged man came out of the house and looked carefully at the reporter. "In principle, these bottles shouldn't be sold to you for holding things because they're not clean..." After pausing for a moment, the middle-aged man glanced at his father, seemingly eager to close the deal. His father said, "These bottles were picked up, usually crushed and sold as broken glass. Individual bottles can also be sold, but it depends on the price. If you want to use these bottles for sesame oil, I cannot provide the rubber stoppers, and you will have to find replacements yourself."
During the days of investigation, the reporter unexpectedly discovered that there were at least a dozen scrap recycling stations and scavengers in this alley. A resident living here said, "This alley is a 'garbage' lane; it's either people scavenging garbage or those collecting it. It smells terrible during the summer. They say there should be no scrap recycling stations in residential areas, but these tenants set up their stations here, and almost every household's yard is filled with junk."
Health Supervision Office: Not Within Their Jurisdiction
Is the collection of large quantities of IV bottles and medicine bottles in residential areas permitted by relevant departments?
On August 4th, staff members from the Medical Supervision Department One of the Changchun Health Bureau's Health Supervision Office and the Environmental Protection Bureau of Erdao District came to inspect this bungalow area. When the inspectors entered the yard, two women were seen prying aluminum foil off the glass bottles and deftly pulling out the rubber stoppers, throwing the glass bottles into bags. "Where did you pick up these bottles?" the enforcement officers asked. One of the middle-aged women nervously replied, "From the hospital." But when asked which hospital, she did not respond.
So, where would these bottles end up? This middle-aged woman said, "We crush them and sell the broken glass for eight cents per pound. If we're not allowed to keep them in the yard, I'll move them away soon."
An enforcement officer from the Medical Supervision Department One of the Health Supervision Office stated that these IV bottles could not be classified as medical waste, but only as medical refuse, which falls outside the scope of their management authority. However, according to the "Medical Waste Classification Catalog," glass bottles stained with blood fall under infectious waste, as they are contaminated by patient blood, bodily fluids, or excretions. Additionally, expired, obsolete, deteriorated, or contaminated pharmaceuticals found in the yard are considered drug-related waste. However, regarding the handling of these medical wastes, the enforcement officer from the Medical Supervision Department One of the Changchun Health Bureau's Health Supervision Office said that according to relevant regulations, they are only responsible for investigating medical waste within hospitals. For medical waste appearing outside hospitals, it does not fall under their jurisdiction.
Street Vendors Selling Sesame Oil in IV Bottles
The destination of the blood-stained IV bottles and some unmarked expired drugs found in the bungalow has become a worrying issue. To clarify the destination of the bottles, on the morning of August 6th, the reporter investigated some early markets and farmers' markets, discovering that small sesame oil workshops often use such bottles. Small bottles can hold half a catty (250g), medium ones a full catty (500g), and large ones two catties (1kg). Some sesame oil workshops use proper glass bottles marked with "sesame oil bottle," but others privately purchase IV bottles for use.
Does the disinfection of these bottles meet the standard? A vendor selling sesame oil at an early market said, "IV bottles are originally used for injecting liquids into the body, so they're not dirty at all. We just wash them and don't need to disinfect them much." According to relevant regulations, the handling of IV bottles involves recycling them for purposes other than their original use, ensuring they do not harm human health. However, the street vendors have no clear standards for ensuring that the reuse does not harm human health. For instance, if blood-stained glass bottles from this bungalow were actually used for sesame oil, the potential hazards would be considerable.