LAHORE, Oct 22: The Punjab Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has sought funds to install 10 autoclaves for public hospitals throughout the province, including the first two in this fiscal year. The total cost for importing the 10 units will be approximately Rs14 million.

An autoclave is a piece of equipment that uses steam at high pressure to sterilise objects used in medical operations.

EPA Director-General Shagufta Shahjahan said the chosen hospitals would probably be district headquarters hospitals and would be expected to foot the maintenance bills as well as provide the space for the autoclaves.

She said autoclaves treat waste more efficiently than incinerators as the process involved no burning, instead relying on heat, steam and pressure. Therefore the toxic emissions associated with incinerators were eliminated, as well as destroying pathogens and viruses present in the waste.

Autoclaves effectively ‘cook’ waste causing plastics to soften and flatten, and paper to disintegrate into a fibrous mass. The volume of the waste is reduced by around 60 per cent after it is ‘cooked’.

An autoclave operates at a temperature of 130-160C at a pressure of four-six bars. According to Dr Shahjahan, there are no autoclaves currently operating in Punjab though the Shaikh Zayed Hospital, which is partly private, has drawn up plans to install one.

The autoclave will take a load of 60kg per hour, or 300kg per day assuming it is used for five hours, and the autoclave facility could be shared by other hospitals.

She added that autoclaves were becoming standard form of hospital waste treatment around the world, including India and Iran.

STONE CRUSHER: The Punjab EPA in collaboration with a private company is to develop a ‘model stone crusher’ in Sargodha that will reduce dust emissions by roughly 80 per cent according to Amir Farooq, a deputy director at the EPA.