Oakland Tribune

September 11th, 2001

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$22,250 fines for E. Bay medical waste incinerator

By Douglas Fischer
STAFF WRITER

California health officials have imposed $22,250 in fines on an East Oakland medical waste incinerator, citing 10 violations uncovered during a June inspection that placed plant employees at risk of injury or death.

The fines represent an improvement of sorts from last year's inspection at Integrated Environmental Systems, when the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined the company $42,000.

The gravest problems this year centered around employees of a temporary agency who work at IES -- particularly troublesome given that those workers are mostly young men with little experience handling hazardous waste, said inspector Garrett Brown.

"It's a mixed situation," Brown said of IES' record. "Clearly they have not gotten their act together . . .. Here you have young people dealing with hazardous material, and it's not being handled according to state specifications."

The most serious infraction involved four employees -- all temporary laborers, according to Brown -- who had been working for between 13 and 52 days at the incinerator without proper hepatitis vaccinations. That infraction prompted a $11,475 fine.

In the other serious infraction, Brown found two rows of 55-gallon drums of ash blocking an emergency eye-wash station. "They're working with hydrated lime (a corrosive and toxic substance)," Brown said. "If you get that in your eyes and you couldn't get immediately to the eye wash, well, we think that's a problem." For IES it's now a $5,735 problem.

In another instance, a temporary employee accidentally pricked himself with a needle on May 22 and was treated. But he did not receive a written copy of the physician's report until July 23, almost 11/2 months after the state deadline.

Diversified Personnel Services Inc., the company providing the workers for IES, shares the blame for the lapses according to the state and was fined $7,540. Seventy-five full- and part-time employees work at IES.

IES' violations, issued Friday but released Monday, aren't regulators only headache with the company. The June inspection was precipitated by a complaint that the company was illegally stockpiling medical waste at its High Street facility.

State Department of Health Services officials imposed a 30-day halt to new shipments while the company cleared out its backlog, then gave IES a special 90-day operating permit, which remains in effect today. Environmental Management Branch chief Jack McGurk said Monday the agency was still considering what sanctions or fines to impose for the illegal stockpile.

An IES spokesman said the company takes responsibility for the problems and has changed its management. Meanwhile activists seeking to shut the incinerators cite the violations as further proof of IES' hazard to community health.