LIVES are being put at risk because of the build up of 70 tonnes of dangerous medical waste which has been stockpiled at hospitals around the State since the UK stopped accepting it for incineration, it was claimed yesterday.
The Department of Health last night rejected this claim, however, saying there was no risk to health. Alternative arrangements for the disposal of stored waste had already been put in train, according to a spokeswoman for the Department.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on the environment, Mr Noel Dempsey, accused the Ministers for Health and the Environment of "bungling and incompetence" on hospital waste. He warned that some hospitals may have to curtail services soon because of the problem.
The Green Party said the toxic clinical waste crisis affecting almost all Irish hospitals was the "tip of a waste iceberg" which successive Irish governments had failed to tackle in a coherent and effective manner.
The party's spokesman on the environment, Mr Gerry Boland, said "this was an emergency waiting to happen".
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said it was aware of the concern and was making moves to resolve the problem. Arrangements to send the medical waste for disposal in Holland had already been organised, she said, and would be operational within a month. She denied that current storage facilities were a health risk.
The Department had also been in touch with the UK about the matter and in the longer term it had short listed a number of companies to tender for the proposed 32 county national healthcare waste disposal facility.
At the beginning of this month, the UK Environment Agency announced it was rejecting applications for waste imports to allow it to conduct an audit of the imports authorised since June 1st. It is not known how long this ban will last.
In the meantime, hospitals throughout the State have been using their own methods of waste disposal, including microwave disposal, and storage in refrigerated containers.