Toxic cancer medicines transported from South for improper disposal in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 July 2019, 22:59 GMT]
Unused and outdated cancer treatment medicines, which are extremely toxic to humans and animals, are being transported from Anuradhapura Cancer Hospital and disposed through an average medical waste incinerator at Thellip-pazhai Cancer Hospital, informed medical sources in Jaffna told TamilNet this week. The equipment is not made to handle such a large quantity of cytotoxic drugs at necessary high temperature. The disposal tool at use doesn't meet the required standards for burning the poisonous human-made chemicals that turn into dioxins, which could cause many new types of cancers to the resettling Eezham Tamils in Valikaamam North, the informed health-workers warned. Several truckloads of outdated cancer medicines have been disposed throughout the last three years, they said.

The dioxins released from the plant could cause hormonal changes among the youth and defects in babies.

The provincial and district health officers, as well as community medicine experts, refused to comment with proper citation publicly.

The operation of Cancer hospitals come directly under the islandwide unitary system and the Tamil health officers and doctors appointed and managed by the SL Health Ministry are afraid to talk about the abuse openly fearing transfer.

However, many of the Tamil officers contacted by TamilNet said they were highly concerned about the improper medical disposal at Thellip-pazhai Cancer Hospital.

The practice of dumping toxic medical waste from Anuradhapura has been a practice since the military High-Security Zone times. The people are resettling in the area, and a proper environmental assessment must be carried out by the experts, they said.

One of the health officers told TamilNet that the smoke produced from the weak stack emission was not even released at the required minimum height.

The sources further revealed that the SL State was disposing outdated or unused medicines instead of returning them to the foreign suppliers who have proper disposal methods for such drugs.

The occupied Tamil Eelam has become the dumping ground, be it wild elephants causing harm in the jungles of the South or toxic waste.

The genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils is now exposed to other forms of threats that are harmful to their existence.