The city government will begin training local hospital staff in how to safely handle medical waste.

The training, organized by the Shanghai Environmental Protection, will involve various aspects of medical waste treatment including safe transport, packaging and incineration.

"Hopefully, the training will make the entire process safer for the public," Diao Bingxiang, deputy director of the Shanghai Treatment Center of Hazardous Waste, said yesterday.

He said Shanghai set up a huge medical waste treatment center in rural Jiading District earlier this year. The center can treat most of the city's medical waste everyday.

The government has also issued new regulations for medical waste treatment, insisting that from now on medical waste must be stored in airtight containers with special labels.

However some local hospitals, because they are not equipped with incinerators, are leaving medical waste with normal garbage, which is potentially dangerous.

According to the center's officials, most medical waste comprises biological tissues and used medical implements. If not treated correctly the waste can be a health hazard as well as a threat to the environment.

According to government statistics, Shanghai has about 2,400 medical facilities, including more than 70,000 ward beds.

For each patient there is an average of two to four kilograms of medical waste, including used syringes and gauze, everyday.

(Shanghai Daily August 18, 2007)