The World Bank should stop funding medical waste incinerators and ensure that its projects only allow burning of medical waste when unavoidable, according to a report presented Friday by a nongovernmental organization in Tokyo.
The report lambastes the financial institution for promoting the burning of medical waste in projects around the world when it clearly poses a health risk because of the dangerous chemicals released during incineration. The report contends that while as little as 2 percent of medical garbage needs to be incinerated or sterilized, at least 30 World Bank projects in 20 countries advocate medical waste incineration as central to waste processing.
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