Toxic build up "will be cleared"

THE company contracted to ship hazardous medical waste from Dublin hospitals to Britain yesterday admitted that 40 tonnes had built up at its Dublin base. But this would be cleared within a week following agreement with British regulatory authorities, it promised.

Irish Environmental Services blamed "administrative difficulties in Britain" for the build up of stored toxic product which includes needles, dressings and body parts. It is kept in sealed 40 foot containers at the Western Industrial Estate in west Co Dublin.

IES general manager, Mr Howard Myers, accepted that the waste was being stored in "not ideal" conditions but denied it posed a public health risk. "We would not tolerate any significant public health risk. It is held in the safest possible conditions and monitored daily," he told The Irish Times.

The material, Mr Myers said, was being kept in a facility licensed by South Dublin County Council for storage of all kinds of waste under EU regulations.

The Department of Health said this latest problem over medical waste was primarily an issue for the local authority, but the Progressive Democrats environment spokeswoman, Ms Mairin Quill, said it was a matter of grave concern. "When the difficulty with hospital waste arose last year, the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, said the matter was in hand and never again would we see such dangerous stockpiling of waste."

Waste shipments should begin by Tuesday or Wednesday, Mr Myers said. The British Environmental Protection Agency agreed on Friday to the arrangements. The waste is to be processed by Trinco in Wrexham, Wales. Official figures suggest that Ireland generates about 3,800 tonnes of clinical waste a year but the real figure is probably higher.

There are no facilities to treat adequately the waste here. Irish health authorities, including Northern counterparts, have, however, sought tenders to provide an appropriate facility.

British authorities last year agreed to accept 5,000 tonnes of Irish waste until Ireland had a disposal facility. Initially, Britain indicated that it was to cease importing waste.

While the British government agreed to grant Ireland a derogation, the regulatory agency had to process "complex documentation" which took five weeks, Mr Myers said. When a British ban was introduced and waste began to accumulate in October, the Department arranged for a Dutch company to accept the waste, an arrangement which continued until February when IES was authorised to ship the waste to Britain.