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Senator Moore sponsors legislation to address the problem of medical waste disposal

Lack of state oversight found during Northbridge debate

January 11, 2005 - Bandages soaked with infected blood, thermometers filled with poisonous Mercury, syringes used to inject powerful drugs, these are not household garbage items but they are regulated with little more authority than—and in some cases less— the waste generated by the average household. Senator Richard T. Moore (D-Uxbridge), the Senate Chair of the Legislature’s Health Care Committee hopes to change that with a comprehensive medical waste reform bill he filed for consideration in 2005. 

“The biggest problem with medical waste,” Moore says, “is the haphazard way it is regulated. The Federal government regulates some aspects, the state government regulates some and what the state does is divided between public health and environmental protection. My bill will better coordinate the roles within the state government and at the same time, require health care institutions to do a better job of reducing medical waste with a goal of ending the use of incineration as a method of disposal.”

Many environmental advocates believe that medical waste incineration is a dangerous method of disposal. The advocacy group Health Care Without Harm supports Senator Moore’s bill because of its commitment to reducing the volume of medical waste and ending the use of medical waste incinerators. The bill also:

  • Improves the rules and regulations applicable to handling and packing medical waste including how long it can be stored and how it must be segregated from other waste.

  • Specifies that waste must be treated be steam sterilization, microwave sterilization or other approved technologies. 

  • Requires that generators of medical waste must prepare Medical Waste Reduction Plans within one year of enactment. Plans will evaluate ways to reduce volume and toxicity of waste, and will have as a minimum goal a 25% reduction of waste volume in 4 years.

All medical waste treatment facilities (on and offsite) must obtain a permit from the DEP. Among other things, permits shall include limits on discharge of mercury, phthalates, and other PBTs into surface or groundwater, or sewage. Prior to treatment, facilities must monitor 1% of closed red bag waste for mercury, radiation and VOCs. Also, as part of the process of permitting and site assignment, DEP and DPH shall conduct a joint assessment of facility design and impacts with input from workers and other affected stakeholders. Permits are valid for 5 years, and can be revoked.

The bill also contains provisions to better protect communities where medical waste treatment facilities may be situated and to protect individuals who work at such facilities.

  • Change in zoning code: New commercial treatment facilities must have minimum 1000’ setback from residences, etc. and potable water supplies, and limited to areas zoned industrially.

  • Host community fee: Applicant must pay an assessment fee (based on proposed tons per day of treatment) to the host community to be used to determine whether to issue site assignment.

  • Health care provider notification: Infectious disease due to exposure to medical waste must be reported as work-related disease/injury.

Senator Moore became aware of some of the deficiencies in the laws and regulations governing medical waste during a contentious effort by a private developer to establish a medical waster facility in the town of Northbridge, in his Southern Worcester County senate district during 2003-2004. Although the application for that project was ultimately rejected by the Department of Environmental Protection, the senator remained concerned that state law needed to be revised to provide greater protection to the public and the environment.

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