Tufton urges proper disposal of face masks
Published:Monday | February 14, 2022 | 9:37 AM
Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton is urging Jamaicans to properly dispose of used masks to prevent potential environmental hazards.
“Dispose of them in a way that preserves the environment. I have seen articles popping up globally around improper disposal, and [masks] ending up in waterways or the marine [environment] and so on,” he noted.
“It is a dilemma, another side effect of the coronavirus [COVID] pandemic and the response. Every action has a reaction and so we have to balance at all times and manage the process,” he added.
Tufton was speaking at the handover of two million masks to benefit schools, front line personnel, community responders and other vulnerable groups, at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Friday.
Regional Environmental Health Officer for the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), Paul Ximines, concurred with the Minister, noting that improper disposal of masks “contributes to the degradation of public health in general.”
“There can be droplets still [in the masks], which would be dependent on a time factor, but also just the proliferation, the tonnage of waste, which, left indiscriminately, will also pose a problem to the environment and public health in general,” he said.
Ximines said that used masks should be bagged and placed in proper garbage receptacles, where they can be transported to “an established place that disposes of wastes.
- JIS News
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