A workman points to accumulated specimens from the Public Health Laboratory on Slipe Pen Road that he was scheduled to start burning yesterday as soon as the team finished fixing the broken incinerator at right. The incinerator has been malfunctioning since the start of December and caused the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisor Personnel (UTASP) which represents the Lab workers to threaten strike action because of the stench. - Ian Allen A MALFUNCTIONING incinerator at the Public Health Laboratory on Slipe Pen Road was restored to service yesterday to deal with a pile up of smelly garbage and discarded body tissue.
This is occurring a few weeks after the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) which represents the Lab workers appealed to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to fix the incinerator that had been malfunctioning since the beginning of December.
The concern, according to UTASP General Secretary Reg Ennis, was with a stench that was not only causing discomfort to the workers, but was causing men from the neighbouring Hannah and Jones Town to threaten employees physically. The Lab has been using the nearby Blood Bank's incinerator since theirs fell into disuse sometime ago.
In a letter to Health Minister John Junor dated December 18 last year, Mr. Ennis threatened to initiate strike action by the Lab staff if something was not done to curtail the problem. The incinerator destroys human specimen including body tissue tested at the Lab.
