Shafaq News- Diyala

Authorities in Iraq's Diyala have filed a lawsuit against Al-Batool Teaching Hospital, the province's largest women and children's hospital, over alleged environmental violations involving its medical waste incinerator.

In a statement, the Diyala Environmental Police Directorate reported that a field inspection found the incinerator failed to meet required environmental and health standards, with smoke emissions affecting nearby residential areas.

The legal action, it explained, followed repeated complaints from residents despite previous requests to provincial authorities to address the problem, describing the case as part of an ongoing campaign to monitor environmental violations that affect public health.

The treatment methods for hazardous medical waste in Iraq are often less advanced compared to those used in many developed nations. For instance, while many hospitals around the world rely on high-temperature incinerators that burn medical waste at temperatures exceeding 1000°C, Iraq still faces significant challenges in implementing such technology. Instead, many healthcare facilities in the country resort to burning waste in open pits or using outdated incinerators, which can release harmful emissions like dioxins and furans, substances that are linked to cancer and other long-term health issues.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, has previously ruled that dumping untreated sewage, solid waste, medical waste, or chemical pollutants into the country's rivers is "religiously forbidden."

Read more: Poisonous time bomb: Iraq's struggle with medical wastes