The Missouri Attorney General’s Office seeks to enjoin an Illinois-based company with a facility in north St. Louis from accepting Ebola medical waste from Texas. The Attorney General’s action is due to the facility’s prior compliance history, namely its past violations of Missouri medical waste laws and regulations. In light of the threat posed by the Ebola virus, the Missouri Attorney General is not confident that the facility is capable of carrying such a large responsibility for the proper handling, treatment and disposal of the Ebola medical waste. The attorney general’s action is demonstrative of the importance of a facility’s environmental compliance record, particularly when lack of compliance poses a potentially substantial public health risk. The occurrence of Ebola in the United States brings to prominence the importance of proper handling, treatment and disposal of medical waste and the substantial consequences associated with strict compliance with these laws and regulations.
Gene Schmittgens and Shawna Bligh will be presenting on compliance with medical waste laws at an upcoming conference of the St. Louis Association of Healthcare Risk Managers. Contact gschmittgens@evans-dixon.com or sbligh@evans-dixon.com for more information on federal and state medical waste laws.
