Medical Waste incineration banned in Argentinean capital

Feature story - 21 February, 2002
Buenos Aires has become the first city in South America to ban the toxic menace of medical waste incineration.

Polluting emmisions from a US waste incinerator

This victory follows six months of Greenpeace campaigning in the city for the ban which involved large public demonstrations and huge numbers of emails, faxes and telephone calls to the city legislators calling for the ban.

Currently most of the medical waste in Buenos Aires is incinerated on the outskirts of the city releasing cancer causing poisons such as dioxin into the environment. Under the new law medical waste from the city must be disposed of by alternative non polluting technologies.

If approved by the Governor of the city in the coming week the ban will be come law. This represents a welcome piece of good news for residents after recent turbulent events in Argentina.

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