fp Turks and Caicos

A brand new medical incinerator is now installed on Providenciales, and the benefits will not only make an impact on the environment, but will also make an economic impact for one local business.

After overcoming a major setback last summer, the new medical waste incinerator had its first test run this weekend. The top load incinerator, Model P60 M1, was installed by the Department of Public Works along with help from a representative of the manufacturer, Inciner8tor, Jason Heaven.

Heaven also gave a training session to a group of local contractors interested in bidding for the contract to operate and maintain the machine.

Permanent Secretary for Health and Human Services Judith Campbell invited potential contractors to a firsthand look at the machine on Friday (Jan. 22) and get a brief demonstration, learning what it will require to operate it.

In the coming days Campbell will send out a request for tender to contract an independent company to operate the machine when required. She says while they do not have the exact numbers yet on how often the incinerator will need to be in use, but it could be as often as every day.

The incinerator is located behind the old Myrtle Rigby Clinic, just steps from the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre.

“Due to our contract agreement with InterHealth Canada, we could not house it directly on the site of the hospital,” Campbell explained. A brick housing shed was recently constructed to house the machine.

The P60 is designed to burn disposables including infectious and contaminated “red bag” surgical dressings, plastic test devices and other wastes produced in a hospital or medical facility. Campbell says the ministry and the hospital are now working on creating safe procedures for transporting  the waste a few hundred feet to the incinerator facility.

The high-tech machine has a burn rate of 100 kilograms per hour and can operate up to 24 hours a day. Incinerating the waste requires temperatures up to 900 degrees, leaving only a small amount of ashes to be disposed of. The model also benefits from a heavy duty secondary chamber and burners allowing a two-second gas residence time, which ensures a complete reburn of any smoke and emissions, dioxins and fumes.

Campbell says the project represents positive progress for the ministry and the TCI as a whole in terms of modernization. The island of Providenciales has been without a medical incinerator for approximately 15 years, meaning medical waste was being sent to the landfill.

The contract to supply and install the incinerator was originally awarded to Johnston International Ltd. However, just weeks later after receiving the contract award from the tender board, the company was put into receivership and could no longer fulfill the contract.

The ministry then took it upon itself to manage the process and secured the incinerator directly from the manufacturer.