Delhi-NCR Air Pollution May Cause Syringe Shortage In India, As HMD Is Ordered To Shut Its Plant

In a move that could potentially derail the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive and badly affect patients suffering from various diseases, India could soon face a syringe and needle shortage.

Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD), the largest maker of syringes and needles in the country has shut its plant in Faridabad.

HMD

According to HMD, they have been asked to suspend production at the Faridabad facility by the state pollution control board due to the prevailing air pollution situation in Delhi and NCR.

More than 228 factories in the region have been asked to shut down by the Haryana Pollution Control Board as part of a drive to combat pollution and improve air quality.

"We have been asked to shut down our needles and syringes plants in Faridabad along with the factories of several other companies," HMD Managing Director Rajiv Nath said.

BCCL

"We daily produce 1.5 crore needles and 80 lakh syringes. This has come to a halt now. As we can't feed needles beyond two days buffer stock from Monday, other factories fed by the mother unit will be shut and daily 1.2 crore syringes will not be available nationally," he said.

According to him, syringes are already running short in India and globally and the government has put in export restrictions.

He said that most of the company's gensets are powered by environmentally friendly piped natural gas.

Only small plants of HMD are connected to diesel gensets, Nath added.

According to Nath, most of HMD's plants run on environmentally friendly piped natural gas (PNG).

"We have captive PNG-based power generation. We do have standby Diesel Gensets but they are hardly used since we have PNG that's far cheaper and pollution-free. We are not a polluting industry and one of our plants just got the Gold Certification for Green Building for meeting sustainability standards," he said.

BCCL

He said HMD contributes over 66 per cent of India's syringes supplies for curative healthcare and immunisation.

The company has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to permit its factories to operate under the National Disaster Management Act

"The closure of needles and syringes manufacturing factories will create disruption in the supply chain," Nath said in a letter to PM Modi's office.

"This may impact healthcare delivery across the country in general and the COVID-19 vaccination programme in particular, resulting in major shortage and other related issues," Nath said, adding that authorities must permit factories to operate under the National Disaster Management Act.

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