The rampant use of self-test COVID-19 kits is proving to be a health hazard for pourakarmikas collecting dry waste from households as well as those who segregate them at Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs).
Since the beginning of January 2022, during the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in discarded masks, including the reusable kind made of cloth. Now, home test kits are also found mixed with household waste instead of being set aside as bio-medical waste.
Kumuda, who works at a waste collecting centre in J.P. Nagar, posted a video saying: “Women working in our centres are afraid to segregate waste, and many of them have fallen sick.” She suggested that pharmacies selling self-test kits inform customers that they should discard them separately as bio-medical waste. The video clip, which has gone viral on social media, shows hundreds of used kits at the collection centre.
