State Seeks Solution For Storage of Waste

In the wake of a wave of medical waste washing up on the shores of the Eastern seaboard last summer, committees in the state legislature are examining two separate bills aimed at solving Massachusetts' medical waste disposal problem.

Hospitals generally dispose of their medical waste through incineration, either on the site, with another hospital or through a paid contractor. But legislators have said that some small hospitals fail to burn their waste properly, creating an environmental hazard when the medical refuse is dumped along with normal garbage.

"We feel that there's a lot of medical waste that's not being handled," said Rep. Steven Angelo (D-Saugus), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee. Angelo introduced a bill concerning the medical waste problem in late 1986 and will offer another draft of his proposal to the committee next week.

"There is no uniform standard for getting rid of medical waste. We only regulate teaching and big hospitals," Angelo said.

Angelo said that teaching hospitals, like the 15 affiliated with Harvard, are not a problem because they are regulated.

Sen. Fred E. Berry (D-Peabody) is sponsoring another bill in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture that would redefine medical waste as hazardous waste, extending existing regulations to cover medical waste.

State House officials said Berry's bill would be the easiest way to implement stricter regulations on medical waste disposal.

"Most people say, `We've got to set up a new department, new regulations, a new bureaucracy,'" said T.J. Andre '85, an aide to Senator Berry. "Berry's bill is a way to avoid creating a new bureaucracy, and with the fiscal state, it'll avoid a duplication of effort."

Observers, however, said that the bill wouldnot be passed because citizens would object tohaving incinerators burning "hazardous waste"instead of "medical waste" in their communities.

"This bill doesn't have a snowball's chance inhell of passing. It's a thought-generator," Andresaid.

"Now, each of these hospitals would be ahazardous waste site, and the 'not in myneighborhood' syndrome comes in to play. As soonas you call something hazardous waste, peopledon't think of the milder waste. Hazardous wasteruns the gamut from a bucket of oil in your garageto radioactive waste."

Whether or not the legislative proposals areaccepted, observers said the experience of lastsummer will force the government to take actionagainst hospitals that do not incinerate theirmedical waste, much of which is actuallydangerous.

"Part of the waste is low grade nuclearmaterial," said Leland G. Wood, a spokesperson forBeth Israel Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital.Placentas, vials, syringes, chemotherapy waste andanimal carcasses all have to be incinerated, hesaid.

Incineration, however, is very costly,officials said. Massachusetts General Hospital,for example, must dispose of 1.5 tons of medicalwaste each day, at an annual cost of $400,000.

"It's expensive. But it's got to be paid. Youcan't just dump it illegally," said Thomas W.Campbell, a spokesperson for McLean Hospital,another Harvard teaching hospital.

But other officials said they are not sure ifall medical waste need be treated so carefully andat such a cost.

"How much of this medical waste really needs tobe disposed of in this expensive way? How much ofhospital waste could really do any harm?" saidMartin S. Bander of Massachusetts General, one ofHarvard's main teaching hospitals. "The samestandards should be applied to all sources of allmedical waste, such as doctor's offices andsurgery centers, which are not now required topack it in the same safe manner as hospitals."

"The place that harbors the most medical wasteis right in your own home," added Bander. "You cutyour-self, put on a band-aid and later throw it inthe wastebasket. That's medical waste.