American hospital bedsheets found in PE hotels.
Hospital waste material illegally imported from the USA is being sold in the city of Timbaba and used in lodging establishments. Federal Police believe the fabrics are being used in clothing factories throughout Brazil.
American hospital waste sheets were found in hotels and guesthouses in Timbaúba, Mata Norte, Pernambuco, by a Globo Nordeste team. The region is 158 km from Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, headquarters of the company Na Intimidade Ltda, accused of importing the material from the United States.
The owner of the Stylus hotel, Marcondes Mendes, said he had been buying the sheets for two years from a warehouse in the city, but was unaware of their origin. He said he wasn't surprised by the English reference to the healthcare system because he didn't know what it meant. The fabrics were found in stores in the city.
Yesterday, Apevisa seized 15 tons of this material with bloodstains at a company in Caruaru, in the Agreste region of the state. The other 30 tons were found on October 15th in warehouses in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe and Toritama.
According to Agência Estado, pocket linings made from discarded sheets from American hospitals and imported by the company Na Intimidade Ltda, from Santa Cruz do Capibaribe (PE), may be present in clothing factories in other states, such as São Paulo. “I believe the company has clients throughout Brazil, but this will be confirmed during the course of the investigations,” said today (18), the superintendent of the Federal Police in Pernambuco, Marlon Jefferson.
He stated that a request for international cooperation will be made to American authorities, through the Ministry of Justice, to discover those responsible for the export of hospital waste. The investigation is expected to last up to 90 days. Jefferson made the statements at the Palácio do Campo das Princesas, after a meeting with Governor Eduardo Campos (PSB), health authorities, police officers, businessmen from the textile hub of the Agreste region, and the Federal Revenue Service.
At the meeting, which assessed what is being done regarding the case and whether a campaign in favor of the textile hub will be initiated, Campos blamed the United States for the incident, for allowing the exit of "merchandise that should not have left." He stated that he will write to President Dilma Rousseff so that she asks the American authorities to investigate "this crime that began in the United States." He argues that the directors of the hospitals whose waste material was exported should be held accountable.
According to the governor, the state did its part, as the Federal Revenue Service identified and blocked, last week, at the Port of Suape, the entry of hospital waste disguised as "defective cotton fabric." Concerned about the decline in consumption in the textile hub – which encompasses 14 municipalities – Campos asked that people not confuse "a marginal, criminal, isolated, and absolutely punctual and contingent procedure" with the work of more than 22 companies that employ 150 people. Wearing a t-shirt with the inscription "I use products from the textile hub. Clothing manufacturing is serious business. It's not waste. It's development for Pernambuco," he leads a national communication campaign in favor of the hub. He assured that all imported material identified as fabric will be inspected.
Contamination. Based on the assessment of infectious disease specialists, Campos stressed that only the company's workers who handled the fabrics were at risk of contamination. "The risk for those who use it is zero," reiterated the manager of the Pernambuco State Health Surveillance Agency (Apevisa), Jaime Brito. According to him, washing inactivates any infection that could be transmitted through blood or other human secretions.
Three units of Império do Forro de Bolso (a trade name of Na Intimidade) were shut down by Apevisa: one store in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe and two warehouses, one in Toritama and the other in Caruaru. Apevisa collected approximately 40 kilos of the material and delivered it to the Institute of Criminalistics (IC) for analysis. Employees of Na Intimidade in Santa Cruz revealed to the Jornal do Commercio that some of the sheets contained tufts of hair bandages and adhesive tape. Furthermore, the sorting of the material was carried out without gloves or any other type of protection.
In Toritama, the news is already affecting commerce. “Even those who have nothing to do with jeans are suffering,” said Adilson Silva, commercial director of Rota do Mar, a company specializing in sportswear. “We don’t use linings, but our sales have fallen. I can’t yet say what the percentage drop was, because the numbers aren’t finalized.” According to him, a large part of Império do Forro de Bolso’s product was sold to local companies. “The pocket arrives washed, in the ordered size. Just by analyzing the product, there’s no way to know if it was made from a bed sheet.” (Contributed by Lígia Formenti).