Chinese government orders Thursday that all medical wastes be stored in safe containers with special labels to prevent them from being mixed with daily wastes in disposal.  

China's Health Ministry and the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) Thursday jointly issued a regulation on safe storage and labeling of medical wastes.

This is the first such regulation since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) struck China in 2003. It is published after a new SARS case emerged and when a flue epidemic looms.

The regulation states that package contains infectious waste and sharp instruments should be labeled with warning mark. Besides, all the packages should meet certain technological requirements, e.g., they can not be made up by PVC, a common thermoplastic resin to produce rainwear and garden hoses.

"Medical waste, not disinfected or packed in a wrong way, is a virus seedbed breeding and spreading diseases." said Liu Youbing, a SEPA official.

China produces 650 thousand tons of medical wastes annually. After SARS epidemic in 2003, it decided to invest over 7 billion yuan (about US$846 million) to collect and dispose them.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2004)