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Coronavirus: Don’t flush disposable masks down the toilet, public urged

Face Masks
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The Larnaca sewerage council (SAL) has urged people not to throw disposable masks and gloves down the toilet.

In an announcement released on Wednesday, SAL said that disposable items which are being widely consumed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, are causing widespread problems to the town’s pipes.

“Masks and gloves, along with toilet paper, sanitary napkins and antiseptic wipes are clogging the underground sewerage system, as they get mixed with other elements such as fat and oil.

“These items should be properly disposed of in rubbish bins, so we are calling on everyone to please refrain from flushing them down the toilet,” SAL said.

According to environmental NGO Greenpeace, incorrectly discarded face masks also pose social and environmental risks, both short-term and long-term.

“Rivers and mountainous areas may become dumping grounds, which not only could hinder our pandemic response efforts to properly dispose of single-use masks, but also wreak havoc on wildlife,” the NGO claimed in a statement.

“In addition to that, from a social risk perspective, a spike in the amount of disposed waste might lead to an increase in the demand for incinerator capacity.

“Finally, discarded face masks can become floating marine debris and impact the marine ecosystems.”

The warnings from Greenpeace and various other NGOs around the world are likely to become more urgent as governments urge the use of disposable face masks rather than reusable cloth ones.

Last week both France and Germany gave clear indications that disposable face masks could become mandatory in public.

On January 19, German chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states agreed that either single-use surgical FFP1 masks or more protective FFP2 filtering facepiece respirators should be worn in the workplace, on public transport and in shops.

France quickly followed suit a few days later, as the government recommended that people wear surgical masks because they offer better protection from Covid-19 transmission than fabric face coverings, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

“The recommendation that I make to the French people is to no longer use fabric masks,” Veran told French broadcaster TF1.

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