Stanford Medical Center to Move Away From Incineration of Medical Waste at IES Incinerators in Oakland, CA! Victory for Health and Environmental Justice!

For more information, contact:

Students for Environmental Action at Stanford	(650) 723-3307
Bradley Angel Greenaction	(415) 248-5010

Big Blow to I.E.S Incinerators in Oakland!

Stanford Medical Center announces move away from incineration of medical waste: vows to reduce PVC plastic and begin using non-incineration treatment technologies

Stanford University, CA -- In response to health and environmental concerns raised by Stanford students, Oakland residents and coalition allies, Stanford University Medical Center has announced plans to immediately begin moving away from incinerating their medical waste at the Integrated Environmental Systems facility in Oakland, California. As a major customer of IES, Stanford's actions will be a major blow to IES's controversial incineration business which has been the target of growing community environmental justice protests.

The IES incinerators have repeatedly been cited for violations of their permit by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The incinerators emit dioxin as the accidental by-product of the burning of PVC in the waste stream, as well as other pollutants. Dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals known to science, and causes cancer and reproductive, immunological, and developmental illnesses.

SEAS, a Stanford environmental justice organization, held a rally of 150 people yesterday to demand that Stanford Medical Center stop sending their waste to the incinerators, located in a low-income community of color in East Oakland. Following the protest, a delegation from SEAS, Greenaction, and student representatives of Chicano/Latino, African-American, labor and environmental organizations met with Lou Saksen of the Stanford Medical Center. Mr. Saksen made the following commitments on behalf of the Medical Center:

• Stanford commits to moving away from incineration of their medical waste, except for the tiny percentage legally required to be incinerated in California;
• Stanford will immediately remove PVC sharps from the waste stream currently sent to IES and will have them microwaved at a different facility (this will immediately remove 60-70% of the PVC from the waste stream currently incinerated);
• PVC containers will now be recycled instead of incinerated;
• Stanford commits to move to on-site steam sterilization of their wastes by January 2002;
• Stanford commits to phasing out PVC-plastics wherever feasible, and being mercury-free.

"We applaud the commitments made by Stanford Medical Center to move away from incineration and to reduce their pvc plastic and mercury wastes as extremely positive steps that will protect public health and the environment," said Tim Ly of SEAS. "We will continue to work with the Medical Center to convince them to implement an interim disposal method that would end Stanford's contribution to dioxin emissions. While we applaud the Medical Center for its long-term commitment, Stanford should do everything possible to end this injustice now."