Dive Brief:
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Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell announced his office is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the incinerated materials from Thomas Eric Duncan from being disposed of at the Chemical Waste Management Inc. landfill in Carlyss, LA. Duncan died in Texas last week from Ebola.
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Six truckloads of potentially contaminated items belonging to the victim were incinerated at a facility in Port Arthur, TX. Those ashes were slated for transportation to Carlyss.
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Caldwell’s office will seek a temporary restraining order to stop the delivery of the materials, and will issue a “demand letter” to the state, contractors and federal officials in Texas.
Dive Insight:
Caldwell said there are “too many unknowns at this point and it is absurd to transport potentially hazardous Ebola waste across state lines.” He continued that “This situation is certainly unprecedented and we want to approach it with the utmost caution.” He said he doesn’t want to take any risks.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that incineration is the “appropriate way” to handle this type of waste and that Ebola-contaminated materials are no longer infectious when incinerated properly.
Hospitals in the U.S. are having trouble finding waste firms that will agree to handle the waste materials from Ebola patients and victims. Many companies are refusing to accept the waste, prompting the CDC to negotiate a deal with a hazardous waste company after it initially refused to handle waste from patients at a hospital in Georgia.
