Chicago: Stericycle Shareholders Meeting!

Greenaction and Health Care Without Harm to Challenge Medical Waste Company to End Incineration

See Also:

Read the Health Care Without Harm report on Stericycle

IES Incinerators Campaign Home Page

For more information, contact:

Bradley Angel Greenaction

(415) 248-5010

Shareholders: Invest in Future Generations

Urge Stericycle Management to Dump Incineration In Favor of Cleaner Technologies and Practices

Stericycle has built its business on offering alternative technologies to hospitals that have shut down polluting, expensive incinerators. So why does the management continue to invest in and operate incinerators when they can build the company's growth on safer, cleaner and cheaper alternatives?

Stericycle's medical waste incinerators are a liability for shareholders because:

Medical Waste Incinerators Pollute Pregnancies
Dioxin and mercury are pollutants that pass from mother to child in the womb and through breast milk. Medical waste incinerators are a major source of these and other pollutants that have been linked to cancer, asthma, learning disabilities and other illnesses.

Communities are fighting to shut down Stericycle incinerators
Community members in St. Louis, Missouri are working to close a Stericycle incinerator that is located in one of the poorest sections of the city. The incinerator not only pollutes the environment and local community but is a liability to the company and its shareholders because it has repeatedly failed to meet pollution control limits and has received significant fines.

Members of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona are also demanding that Stericycle shut down its incinerator because it is a threat to their health, environment, economy and culture.

In North Carolina, residents object to the fact that waste from 17 states and the District of Columbia is being burned in the Stericycle incinerator in Haw River. The community is working to prevent Stericycle from obtaining the necessary federal air permits to run the facility.

Handling medical waste doesn't have to pollute pregnancies and endanger communities. The good news is that Stericycle supports safer, cleaner alternatives as demonstrated by their ownership of alternative systems such as autoclaves and Electro-Thermal Deactivation facilities. Shareholders should demand Stericycle end incineration and grow the alternative technology side of its business to benefit shareholders, the environment and our children.

Please help Stericycle run a better business by asking the management to:

• Make a public commitment to phase out the use of incineration
• Improve worker health and safety programs
• Work more closely with customers to reduce the volume and toxicity of health care waste
• Minimize the impact of facilities on surrounding communities

More information about each of these recommendations is available in Health Care Without Harm's new report: "Stericycle: Living Up to Its Mission? An Environmental Health Assessment of the Nation's Largest Medical Waste Company." The report is available online at www.noharm.org.

Health Care Without Harm is a coalition of 361 organizations in 40 countries working for environmentally responsible health care.