Chinese government orders Thursday  that all medical wastes be stored in safe containers with special  labels to prevent them from being mixed with daily wastes in  disposal.

China's Health Ministry and the State Environment Protection  Administration (SEPA) Thursday jointly issued a regulation on safe storage and labeling of medical wastes.

 This is the first such regulation since the Severe Acute  Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) struck China in 2003. It is published  after a new SARS case emerged and when a flue epidemic looms.

The regulation states that package contains infectious waste  and sharp instruments should be labeled with warning mark. Besides, all the packages should meet certain technological requirements, e. g., they can not be made up by PVC, a common thermoplastic resin  to produce rainwear and garden hoses.

 "Medical waste, not disinfected or packed in a wrong way, is a  virus seedbed breeding and spreading diseases." said Liu Youbing,  a SEPA official.

China produces 650 thousand tons of medical wastes annually.  After SARS epidemic in 2003, it decided to invest over 7 billion  yuan ( about 846 million US dollars) to collect and dispose them.

Close

Today's Top News		Top National News
+Guangdong has a new suspected SARS case ( 2004-01-08) +Experts: Pan-blue camp makes dangerous U-turn ( 2004-01-08) +33,761 policemen dismissed ( 2004-01-08) +Taipei told to stop playing with fire ( 2004-01-07) +Movers and shakers in China's economy ( 2004-01-08)		+Human contacts of SARS patient free from virus ( 2004-01-08) +Yellow River loses 200 million tons of sand in past two years ( 2004-01-08) +China corruption, bribery cases drop in 2003 ( 2004-01-08) +Macao airport sees 27 pct growth in cargo throughput in 2003 ( 2004-01-08) +Special funding for China's armed forces to outsource logistics services ( 2004-01-08)