New Delhi: Bio-medical waste must be disposed of far away from people's homes but a company has turned the law on its head in a residential colony in Delhi.

The Synergy bio-medical waste treatment facility is deep inside Sukhdev Vihar, a collection of apartments in South-East Delhi. The plant treats body organs, blood-soaked bandages, used surgical gloves, needles, medical instruments and even radioactive matter from hospitals and clinics all over Delhi.

"You can see the plumes entering into our rooms and bedrooms and the houses. It is creating an environmental problem and would lead to long-term health hazards," says Shahid Hasan, a resident of Sukhdev Vihar. Hasan's concern is genuine—exposure to medical waste could lead to AIDS, cancers and other diseases.

Legally, 90 percent of medical waste must be autoclaved: a process that includes heating waste in a pressurised device for sterilization, somewhat like cooking wastes in a huge pressure cooker. But there is evidence to believe that the Synergy plant is not following the best practices.

"Black smoke means there will be un-burnt material coming out. Second, it [the company] is not maintaining the standard of emissions. Both things could also be happening. It leads one to think that there is mismanagement on the facility," says Ravi Agarwal, director of Toxics Link, a Delhi-based privately funded agency that specialises in toxic waste.

If black smoke is evidence of mismanagement, the plant is quite guilty. "When I get up in the morning, I find my bed's full of dark small carbon particles, the balcony is full of particles, and it is so difficult to breathe. In the morning there is nothing like fresh air here," says Anil Misra, a resident of Sukhdev Vihar.