Recently, three private companies (with the right connections) tried to strongarm the Department of Environment to force members (read private clinics) of the Malaysian Medical Association to use their services, which is the collection and disposal of clinical waste.

I am concerned over the monopoly the company is trying to covet as history has shown that monopoly is usually used to exploit a good profit at the expense of consumers. Sometimes, it is also allowed to get away with questionable service.

When I was working in a government-run hospital, its waste was contracted to a well-connected company. It employed Bangladeshi workers to collect the highly dangerous waste which included blood-tainted needles and syringes.

They were neither trained nor well-equipped for the job and used their bare hands to collect the potentially dangerous waste. The rubber gloves which some of them wore offered no real protection as there is a danger of needle pricks and HIV infection.

When the nurses and doctors tried to teach or explain to them in English or Malay, the danger they were exposing themselves to, they did not understand.

We will never know how many of these ignorant Bangladeshi workers contracted HIV because of the lackadaisical attitude of their employer. We only hope that the danger does not grow any further and that someone or a non-governmental organisation would take note of this. Perhaps some universities should also research into this.