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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western...

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India (HRAWI) spokesperson Pradeep Shetty.   “We are in continuous touch with the concerned authorities, but the situation is very gloomy. There is no response from the Centre or the Ministry of Petroleum on when the situation will ease. We fear that more than 50 pc of all eateries in Mumbai will soon down the shutters. The same will apply to the rest of the state and many other parts of India,” Shetty told  ‘ The Perfect Voice’ .   The shortage of commercial LPG has badly affected multiple sectors, including the hospitality and food industries, mass private or commercial kitchens and even the laundry businesses, industry players said.   At their wits' ends, many restaurateurs resorted to the reliable old iron ‘chulhas’ (stoves) fired by either coal or wood - the prices of which have also shot up and result in pollution - besides delaying the cooking.   Anticipating a larger crisis, even domestic LPG consumers besieged retail dealers in Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Akola, Nagpur to book their second cylinder, with snaky queues in many cities. The stark reality of the 12-days old Gulf war with the disturbed supplies has hit the people and industries in the food supply chains that feed crores daily.   “The ordinary folks leave home in the morning after breakfast, then they rely on the others in the food chain for their lunch or dinner. Many street retailers have also shut down temporarily,” said Shetty.   Dry Snacks A quick survey of some suburban ‘khau gullies’ today revealed that the available items were mostly cold sandwiches, fruit or vegetable salads, cold desserts or ice-creams, cold beverages and packed snacks. Few offered the regular ‘piping hot’ foods that need elaborate cooking, or charging higher than normal menu rates, and even the app-based food delivery system was impacted.   Many people were seen gloomily munching on colorful packets of dry snacks like chips, chivda, sev, gathiya, samosas, etc. for lunch, the usually cheerful ‘chai ki dukaans’ suddenly disappeared from their corners, though soft drinks and tetrapaks were available.   Delay, Scarcity  Maharashtra LPG Dealers Association President Deepak Singh yesterday conceded to “some delays due to supply shortages” of commercial cylinders, but assured that there is no scarcity of domestic cylinders.   “We are adhering to the Centre’s guidelines for a 25 days booking period between 2 cylinders (domestic). The issue is with commercial cylinders but even those are available though less in numbers,” said Singh, adding that guidelines to prioritise educational institutions, hospitals, and defence, are being followed, but others are also getting their supplies.   Despite the assurances, Shetty said that the current status is extremely serious since the past week and the intermittent disruptions have escalated into a near-total halt in supplies in many regions since Monday.   Adding to the dismal picture is the likelihood of local hoteliers associations in different cities like Pune, Palghar, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and more resorting to tough measures from Thursday, including temporary shutdown of their outlets, which have run out of gas stocks.

How Colour Codes Help Hospitals Segregate Waste

Proper segregation at the point of generation is the key to successful biomedical waste management.

Through my previous articles, I have presented a brief review of various legal provisions for managing waste generated in healthcare establishments across the country. Let us now explore the actual ‘on-site’ activities that are carried out at the sources of generation and the common facilities for treatment and disposal of the hospital waste. There are four major activities related to the management of this waste. These are segregation, transportation, treatment, and disposal.


1.Segregation: It is always said that proper segregation of waste right at the source of its generation is the key to the success of a waste management programme. The same applies to biomedical waste also. As per the rules, every occupier must ensure that the four categories of waste generated are properly segregated. For this, four different coloured non-chlorinated plastic bags or containers are mandatory. These are as follows:


A) Yellow Bag: As per the 2016 rules, the yellow-coloured bags are to be strictly used for the collection and temporary storage of highly infectious and hazardous waste, which are as follows:


i) Human Anatomical Waste: Human tissues, organs, body parts, and foetuses below the viability period (as per the Medical Termination of

Pregnancy Act 1971, amended from time to time).


ii) Animal Anatomical Waste: Experimental animal carcasses, body parts, organs, and tissues, including the waste generated from animals used in experiments or testing in veterinary hospitals or colleges, or animal houses.


iii) Soiled Waste: Items contaminated with blood or body fluids, like dressings, plaster casts, cotton swabs, and bags containing residual or discarded blood and blood components.


iv) Discarded or Expired Medicines: Pharmaceutical waste like antibiotics and cytotoxic drugs, including all items contaminated with cytotoxic drugs, along with glass or plastic ampoules, vials, etc.


v) Chemical Waste: Chemicals used in the production of biologicals, and used or discarded disinfectants


vi) Chemical Liquid Waste: Liquid waste generated due to the use of chemicals in the production of biologicals and used or discarded disinfectants, silver X-ray film developing liquid, discarded formalin, infected secretions, aspirated body fluids, liquid from laboratories and floor washings, cleaning, housekeeping, disinfecting activities, etc.


vii) Discarded linen, mattresses, and bedding contaminated with blood or body fluid, as well as routine masks and gowns.


viii) Microbiology, Biotechnology, and other clinical laboratory waste (pre-treated): These include blood bags, laboratory cultures, stocks or specimens of microorganisms, live or attenuated vaccines, human and animal cell cultures used in research. Additionally, you have industrial laboratories, the production of biological residual toxins, dishes, and devices used for cultures.


B) Red Bag: Wastes generated from disposable medical items include tubing, bottles, intravenous tubes and sets, catheters, urine bags, and syringes without needles. This category also includes fixed needle syringes with their needles cut, gloves, and vacutainers, the small, sterile tubes used to collect blood samples for laboratory testing.


C) White Bag: Waste Sharps, including metals, needles, syringes with fixed needles, needles from needle tip cutters or burners, scalpels, blades, or any other contaminated sharp object that may cause punctures and cuts. This includes used, discarded, and contaminated metal sharps. Preferably, white, translucent, puncture-proof, leak-proof, tamper-proof containers should be used instead of plastic bags.


D) Blue box: Puncture-proof, leak-proof boxes or containers with blue coloured markings are to be used for broken or discarded and contaminated glass, including medicine vials and ampoules, except those contaminated with cytotoxic waste.


More information on this is in my next article. Until then, have a nice weekend!


(The writer is an environmentalist.)

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