Darshan Blog

Raleigh, North Carolina has banned garbage disposals; violators are being threatened with a hefty fine of $25,000 per day!

Last year near Raleigh, N.C., a tall geyser exploded through the ground and swallowed a Corvette and the cause was said to be cooking grease, the kind that slips down the drain and—unknown to your average household chef—clogs sewage lines. To solve the problem, the city has taken a dramatic step: it’s banned garbage disposals in homes.

Sewage overflows cause health hazards, property and environmental damage. Raleigh already spends $10 million a year on overflow prevention. So, the residents have been forbid to install new or replace old disposals. Violators will be charged with a hefty fine of $25,000 per day. This has been opposed by the citizens who believe that a basic homeowner’s right is on the line. Some residents worry that garbage volumes will increase as a result, crowding landfills, while others dispute the premise that grease is truly the culprit.

There has been lot of opposition to this ban, and it is has been sent back to commitee for further review.

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While we tend to reuse the colorful water bottles, meant for single use, the FDA says, that it is harmful to do so. Our mouth leaves a film that harbors bacteria, and the bottle’s narrow mouth makes it hard to clean. While the material is perfectly safe for single use, it’s not designed for repeated reuse, says Kellogg Schwab, an environmental microbiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The hard plastic water bottle, is made out of Thermoplastic Polymer. These, contain polycarbonates which can leach a potenitally harmful synthetic hormone. The FDA insists polycarbonate containers are safe, but some scientists disagree. 

The scientists say that, it reacts with boiling water, to leave bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic hormone that mimics estrogen. The other type of water bottle, is high-density polyethylene is a softer, opaque plastic made from petroleum. These HDPE containers are safe. Stainless Steel bottles are made of durable and light stainless steel inside and out are lot safer to use tha HDPE containers. The safest bet? Water from the tap–in a glass.

Source: Time

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Hospitals are recycling a growing number of medical devices labeled as single-use, to save costs and to reduce medical wastes. There are certain Food and Drug Administration guidelines to be followed for recycling medical devices labeled for single use. But the practice, which involves shipping devices to reprocessing facilities to be cleaned, sterilized and tested for reuse, has raised concerns about safety.

Medical device makers say their single-use products can be used only once, and pose a higher risk of failure and harm when reused. Reprocessing companies, hospital associations and environmental groups counter that the devices they reprocess are as safe as new thanks to modern sterilization methods, cost 40 percent to 60 percent less, and can eliminate thousands of tons of waste.

After reviewing eight years of FDA data, the Government Accountability Office weighed in with a report concluding there is no evidence that reprocessed single-use devices create an elevated health risk for patients.

AMDR, the reprocessing group, is fighting efforts to require that patients go through formal informed-consent processes. For patients, it may be reassuring to ask physicians whether a reprocessed single-use device will be used during an invasive procedure and what steps have been taken to ensure it carries no additional risk.

The safe use of these reprocessed devices helps us conserve resources.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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