Asia: Regional Meeting Moves Medical Waste Management Forward
HCWH – Health Care Without Harm and strategic partners HealthCare Foundation Nepal (HECAF) and Toxics Link (India) participated in a three-day healthcare waste management workshop convened by the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia in December 2011. Participants also included government representatives from eleven countries.  more

India: 5O Hospitals Get Notices
Deccan Chronicle – The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board has served showcause notices to more than 50 hospitals over the last few weeks for flushing out waste water, and liquid biomedical waste, without chemically treating them. Highly toxic in nature, they can be a source of severe health hazard if not treated properly, according to experts.  more

Pakistan: Violations of Biosafety Protocols in Labs, Health Facilities Observed
Dawn – Among 353 public and private sector hospitals and laboratories of Karachi city, the number of lab professionals who received regular immunisation was zero; 40 per cent recapped syringe needles after using them and 36pc discarded used syringes without cutting them. These and other findings were the outcome of a survey entitled "Knowledge and awareness of proper waste disposal and routine bio-safety measures among healthcare workers in Karachi".  more

US: Study: Chemicals Reduce Effectiveness of Some Childhood Vaccine
The Chart – Certain chemicals in the environment may reduce the effectiveness of childhood vaccines according to research in a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Scientists looked specifically at PFCs, perfluorinated compounds, widely used in products that repel water, grease and stains. Children with higher levels of PFCs in their bodies did not get optimal protection from their vaccines, according to the study.  more

China: Report Spells Out "Grim" Climate Change Risks
Reuters – Global warming threatens China's march to prosperity. The warnings are carried in the government's "Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change," which sums up advancing scientific knowledge about the consequences and costs of global warming for China's prosperity, health and food output.  more

India: Government Devises Plan To Tackle Climate Change
Daily Bhaskar – Acute climate change in Rajasthan due to greenhouse gas emissions has prompted the state government to devise a special action plan to protect commoner's health against hazardous fallout of climate change. Western Rajasthan districts, most vulnerable to rising seasonal and vector-borne diseases, as fallout of acute climate change, will be the focus areas of the action plan.  more

Pakistan: E-Waste As a Health Risk
Daily Times – Hazardous E-waste has become one of the biggest health risks of this century in Pakistan, with rising trend of bulk imports of used and obsolete computers and other electronic equipment from the West, taking full advantage of yet to be enacted E-waste laws in the country.  more

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