Chile: Training Session on Mercury-free Hospitals Program
HCWH – With the help of Health Care Without Harm Latin America, a training session on the implementation of the "Mercury-free hospitals" Program took place in the city of Castro, Chiloe, Chile.  more (in spanish)

India: Waste Dumped In The Open
Indian ExpressTime – Despite the government putting in place a system for their safe disposal, black plastic bags containing hospital or biomedical waste were found dumped near a municipal dustbin. Residents claim that last week similar black bags containing biomedical waste were dumped and rag pickers, who opened it, just took plastic materials and left behind syringes, blood stained cottons and other materials on the site. They expressed fear that disposal of biomedical waste in the public garbage bins would expose them to health hazards.  more

India: Hospitals Throw Biomedical Waste In Open Space
Times of India – Eight government and 12 private hospitals were found disposing of their medical waste, violating the bio-medical waste management and handling rules, 1998 set by the Punjab Pollution Control Board.  more

India: Threat of Mercury Poisoning
Hindustan Time – Delhi hospitals are sitting on 200 kg of highly toxic mercury because there is no law to enforce the Central Pollution Control Board's guidelines on its disposal. Another 500 kg - in thermometers and blood-pressure measuring devices - is to be disposed of by 2012. The toxic baggage remains, despite the state environment department tasking two agencies with systematic disposal of the metal.  more

Malasia: All Set to Ban Polycarbonate Milk Bottles By March
The Malai – Shops have begun to remove remaining stocks of polycarbonate infant milk bottles containing the banned chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) before such bottles are outlawed in March 2012. This comes after Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai announced that such milk bottles would no longer be allowed for sale from next March as it could endanger infants.  more

Korea: Scientists Link Cholera Outbreaks and Climate Change
Irin News – A new study into the linkages between rain, temperature and cholera shows scientists may be able to predict epidemics in time to save people from the life-threatening disease. After analysing several years of disease and weather data from cholera-endemic areas of Zanzibar, Tanzania, scientists from the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, Korea, found that if a more than one degree Celsius increase in the average monthly minimum temperature and a 200mm increase in monthly rainfall were recorded in a month, a cholera outbreak was imminent in the following month.  more

Tanzania: Health Centres Get Solar Power to Improve Services
The Citizen – Solar panels have been installed in 42 health centres in four Tanzania mainland regions. The work was conducted under Tunajali (We care), a programme funded by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for Aids and the US Agency for the International Development.  more

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