New Medical Waste Found; Container May Provide Clue

Lifeguards Monday collected several more medical waste items that washed ashore in La Jolla near the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was the fourth incident of its kind in less than a month.

County health officials said the wastes did not pose an immediate health hazard, and they expressed hope that stock numbers still visible on one of the items may hold a clue to the origin of the recent spate of medical discards that have been deposited on La Jolla beaches.

“It is perhaps the first break that we’ve got in perhaps trying to trace something,” said Larry Aker, assistant deputy director of the county’s division of environmental health services.

Container of Oxalic Acid

Found Monday was one empty container for Ringer’s lactate solution, one full container of sodium chloride solution, one half-filled bottle of aspirin, two empty containers that had no contents or labels and one full container of oxalic acid.

The items were found at about 2:45 p.m. on a half-mile stretch of beach that began at the La Jolla Shores lifeguard station and stretched to north of the Scripps Pier, Aker said.

He said the container of oxalic acid bore a 12-digit stock number that may help health officials trace the origins of these and other items of medical waste.

“It’s more likely that we’re able to trace this,” he said, adding that the health department will enlist the help of an expert in medical supplies to help unlock the mystery.

Meanwhile, about 45 small vials of strange-looking, unidentified chemicals washed up on Orange County beaches Monday, triggering concern among regulatory agencies and a warning to the public not to open the containers.

Officials said the vials did not appear to be medical waste, but they did not rule out that possibility. Hazardous-materials experts said they were concerned that the chemicals might be explosive if opened.

Aker also said that the items found Monday in La Jolla had been in the water for some time because the containers are pitted and their labels appear to have been “skimmed” by washing up against the shore.

Monday’s find prompted health department officials to call an informal brainstorming session to try to figure out why batches of the potentially infectious medical wastes are suddenly washing up on La Jolla beaches.

Last week, health officials speculated that some of it may be coming from Navy ships, but Navy spokesmen said no medical wastes had been thrown overboard by the Pacific Fleet for at least two years.

The first discovery of the wastes in recent months came Oct. 29, when a vial of blood, a syringe and a patient’s wristband were found near Black’s Beach. A day later, more wastes washed up at La Jolla Shores.

Health officials were able to trace the patient’s wristband to Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, where a hospital spokesman has acknowledged that 12 to 14 bags of the special refuse were erroneously tossed into the regular garbage bins and hauled to the San Marcos landfill.

The origins of the rest of the wastes, however, remain a mystery, although health officials say some of the items had been in the water so long that barnacles were growing on them.

State law require hospitals to take special care in disposing of the infectious wastes--which can include body fluids, dressings and needles--by either burning them in an incinerator or sterilizing them before they are hauled away to a designated landfill.

The regulations, however, do not apply to medical offices that generate less than 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of the potentially infectious waste a month. That loophole allows smaller doctors’ offices and medical suites to dump needles and other potentially hazardous discards into regular garbage bins, where drug users search for syringes, health officials say. At the urging of county Supervisor Susan Golding, the Board of Supervisors voted last week to close that loophole.

The third discovery of medical wastes came Thursday, when lifeguards were alerted to a number of items, including a large syringe with an attached hypodermic needle.