Senator Nancy Binay on Sunday called on the government to come up with a comprehensive medical waste management plan now that COVID-19 self-test kits have been made commercially available.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Binay noted, has so far approved the use of 116 COVID -19 self test kits for antibody, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and antigen tests.
But Binay said she is worried that disposal of these testing could be problematic, and may pose further harm and and risks inside households and neigborhood if not properly disposed of.
“It’s a good thing these kits are already readily available, but we also need to be cautious of the health standards and environmental impact because we can’t just treat these self-test kits as ordinary wastes,” she said.
To ensure that medical wastes would be disposed of properly, Binay said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Health (DOH) should come up with an information and education campaign aimed at teaching users how to properly discard used COVID-19 test kits.
She also said the DENR, DOH, local government units (LGUs) and pharmacies should also have flyers or information materials readily available to those who purchase these self-test kits, and for the users to read the instructions carefully.
“The handling and proper disposal of these test kits are crucial. We should be anticipatory. Good handling practices must be observed because if it gets out of hand, it can be an environmental and public health hazard,” Binay stressed.
The World Health Organization (WHO), earlier, raised the alarm on how tons of medical waste from the COVID-19 response expose the urgent need to improve health care waste management practices among countries.
Last year, Binay also filed Senate Resolution No. 656 urging the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), in consultation with relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors, to come up with a concrete plan on the proper handling and management of COVID-19 vaccination medical wastes in order to prevent harmful health risks.