The tens of thousands of tons of medical waste produced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to human and environmental health, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a report on Tuesday. The extra waste is “threatening human and environmental health and exposing a dire need to improve waste management practices,” the United Nations health agency said. According to the agency’s report, approximately 87,000 tons of personal protective equipment (PPE) was ordered between March 2020 and November 2021 through a joint U.N. emergency initiative and shipped to countries, the majority of which ended up as waste. Authors note that over 140 million test kits have been shipped, with the potential to generate 2,600 tons of mainly plastic, non-infectious waste and 731,000 liters of chemical waste, which is the equivalent of one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool. Furthermore, over 8 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally, which has created 144,000 …