A incineração de resíduos de serviços de saúde do município de Belo Horizonte/MG e a responsabilidade compartilhada

Abstract

The Health Care Waste Management (HCW) is a challenge to the institutions involved. An important Brazilian law enforced is the RDC No. 306/2004 ANVISA, which deals with the Technical Regulations for the management of HCW, setting generator as the responsible for managing these wastes from generation to final disposition. A technology of treating this waste widely adopted in brazilian State of Minas Gerais is incineration, which is a physical-chemical process of oxidation at elevated temperatures. This activity should be performed with strict environmental control, to avoid generation of environmental impacts. By hiring a company incinerator, the HCW generator shares liability with the service provider for possible environmental impacts caused at the stage of treatment. The environmental agency is responsible for the fidelity of the information in this document, licensing and inspections by licensed enterprises aiming to ensure proper operation according to law. This study aims to assess the perception of the actors involved in the incineration process of HCW generated by Belo Horizonte with regard to the principle of shared liability. For this, adopting a qualitative methodology, it was conducting 11 interviews with generators of HCW, incinerators companies and environmental agencies. Results showed that those actors involved with managing of HCW presented divergent concepts about attributing liability for the possible environmental impacts caused by inappropriate management of these wastes, which may undermine the commitment control and, consequently, the preservation of environment. It was demonstrated that, by understanding the actors involved, the generators of HCW do not have the technical conditions appropriate to evaluate the possible environmental impacts caused by the company for incineration, therefore they believe on information about the environmental permits issued by environmental agencies. Thus, to indicate a misconcept about current legislation possibly lead public agencies and enforcers to a new discussion about these standards, to make them applicable legal provisions