Here’s a good reason to consider calling a medical waste disposal company today.
The Medical Waste Bill was written, refined, and passed in increments, from 1970 to 1995. To summarize it (or the gist of it) in order to keep everyone safe and healthy, medical waste needs to be separated from regular trash and handled with more care to prevent diseases from spreading unintentionally.
(It’s hard to imagine what the planet would look like without minimal medical waste disposal protocol in place at medical facilities. Imagine if the needles, sheets, blood of Ebola patients were not burned, for example. Imagine if, instead, someone dumped the body fluids of Ebola patients into a source of drinking water.)
Top civil penalties were $25,000 per day of violation, and normal criminal penalties were $50,000 per day and two years in jail. In cases where the dumper knowingly endangered the health of another person, those penalties escalated to a $250,000 fine and 15 years in jail, or a $1 million fine if the dumper was an organization.
It has been twenty years since New Jersey has had a case in which an andividual was charged with dumping medical waste directly into the ocean, but here it is:
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. (AP) _ A Pennsylvania dentist has been charged with dumping medical waste that sullied a New Jersey beach at the height of vacation season.
Authorities said Friday that Thomas McFarland took his motorboat to Townsend Inlet near Avalon on Aug. 22 and dumped a bag full of some 300 dental-type needles, along with 180 cotton swabs and other materials from his Wynnewood, Pa., medical office.
McFarland, 59, is charged with unlawfully discharging a pollutant and unlawful disposal of regulated medical waste. Each charge carries a maximum prison term of five years. Fines could total $125,000 if he is convicted on both counts.
And here’s another one:
ARKANSAS RIVER MEDICAL WASTE DUMPING SUSPECT DIES IN CUSTODY
A Ralston man who reportedly confessed to dumping medical waste into the Arkansas River and faced up to 40 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines died over the weekend.
Garrett Mitchell Gibson, 27, was awaiting a hearing in the river case and a transfer to prison on an unrelated conviction for cattle rustling when he was hospitalized.
According to court documents, Gibson posed as a janitor in order to gain access to dozens of boxes of medical biohazards — needles and near-empty vials of medication.
A fisherman found containers washing onto shore and reported it to authorities. The containers were marked with the hospital name, and a St. John Medical Center security memo warned employees that an unauthorized man was seen on surveillance cameras going room to room stealing biohazard boxes.
According to the memo, it happened every few days for about a week.
Gibson was arrested days later at the hospital, as he reportedly made another theft attempt.
Gibson lied to the Pawnee County Sheriff during an interrogation, saying he was an OU medical student, documents say. When the sheriff bucked that claim, Gibson reportedly confessed to the dumping.
A source says Gibson stole the biohazard boxes in hopes of getting leftover pain medication for himself.
Moral of these stories?
Don’t try this at home.
Let a medical waste disposal company (like us!) take care of your medical waste disposal.
Call us! (866) 464-0127 or visit MedWasteMngmt.com/home
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http://www.theclevelandamerican.com/articles/2015/05/27/news/doc555c962954231068611185.txt