Health Care Without Harm, together with the World Health Organization, is a principle cooperating agency in the UNDP’s GEF Global Healthcare Waste Project. The project is assisting seven countries -- Argentina, India, Latvia, Lebanon, Philippines, Senegal and Vietnam -- with the resources to implement best health care waste management practices in a way that is both locally appropriate and globally replicable.

In the process, model hospitals in these countries will be brought into compliance with the Stockholm Convention, which requires countries to give priority consideration to waste treatment processes, techniques and practices that avoid the unintentional formation and release of dangerous pollutants. The project's ultimate goal is to protect public health and the global environment from the impacts of dioxin and mercury releases.

In addition, a special component of the project in an eighth country, Tanzania, is developing and testing affordable and effective healthcare waste treatment technologies appropriate for conditions in much of sub-Saharan Africa. This component is done in collaboration with the College of Engineering and Technology at the University of Dar es Salaam, and the local NGO AGENDA for Environment and Sustainable Development.

More: http://www.gefmedwaste.org/article.php?list=type&type=3