Expired drugs, spurious drugs, substandard drugs – Karnataka is said to have a whopping 82 tonnes of these on any given day, 50 per cent of it in Bengaluru. Wholesalers are expected to collect these and ensure their scientific disposal. Though there are three centres in Bengaluru (Kanakapura Road, Hosakote, Doddaballapur) that incinerate this massive quantity of unusable medicines, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) admits this is simply not enough.
What happens to the rest? They are dumped into drains and water bodies, with the potential of causing 25 undetectable diseases, said Shashi Mohan, MD and CEO of Satva Health Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which has now been appointed as the agency by the KSPCB to monitor their scientific disposal.
In addition, B. Ramanath Rai, Minister for Forest, Environment and Ecology, said three more centres will come up in Kolar, Chickballapur and Bengaluru to aid in scientific disposal of discarded waste.
