Another Wave of Medical Waste Washes Ashore

A new batch of medical waste washed up on beaches over the weekend, and this time some of the items were directly linked to the Navy, investigators said Tuesday.

The waste was found Saturday and Sunday at various locations in Solana Beach and Encinitas. The most dangerous was a medical syringe bearing an exposed needle, said Linda Miller, spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorney and a member of the local Hazardous Waste Task Force.

The empty syringe contained no markings, but a life jacket and an aerosol can containing an aircraft cleaning solvent were directly traceable to the Navy, Miller said. An intravenous ringer solution, an intravenous bag with tubes, two potable water bags and a microwave cable also were turned in to investigators.

Two weeks ago, three devices used to inject a potentially harmful drug capable of inducing rapid heartbeat, fever and delirium washed up at Pacific Beach and Mission Beach, amid an assortment of other waste.

The injectors, which resemble a child’s crayons, are placed against the skin and release a needle that injects the chemical atropine , used as an antidote for nerve gas and insecticide poisoning.

“This looks like a crayon,” Miller said, holding the injector with gloved hands. “This is very dangerous. It may not be life-threatening, but a child could come along and pick this up, thinking it is a crayon, and end up in the hospital in serious condition. The dosage inside is five times the amount that an 8- or 10-year-old could tolerate.

“Were an adult with a heart condition to pick this up, it could be life-threatening.”

Miller said Navy officials are cooperating with investigators and “seem much more interested” in the problem than they did when medical waste first began to surface on county beaches in 1988. She said the Naval Investigative Service is assisting the district attorney’s office and the County Department of Health Services in the latest inquiry.

She said the Hazardous Waste Task Force is made up of representatives from 20 agencies spanning the state, federal and local sectors.

“A lot of this stuff points to the military,” Miller said. “We just can’t say yet what branch.”

Miller said none of San Diego’s discoveries of medical waste remotely approach the quantity or severity of items found a couple of years ago on a New Jersey coastline, when the problem first gained national attention.

“That discovery was really terrible,” she said. “They found vials filled with blood . . . all sorts of awful things.”

A spokesman for the Navy said Tuesday that Naval Investigative Service is conducting its own inquiry into the discovery of atropine injectors as well as the assortment of items found on beaches over the weekend.

“The latest is that the investigation of atropine investigators is inconclusive,” said Chief Journalist Martin Wicklund, a Navy spokesman. “They were traced to a Department of Defense depot in Tracy (California), but that depot services all branches of the service.”

Wicklund said the Navy is “especially sensitive” to the “finger-pointing” surrounding the dumping of medical waste, alluding to charges that the Navy may be responsible.

Although vessels are allowed to dump medical waste provided they are 50 miles out to sea, Wicklund said the Navy has “strict regulations” against such dumping, unless it’s a time of war, or, “there’s no other way” to get rid of it.

“Within the Navy--believe me--medical waste is a very hot topic,” Wicklund said.

He said only the life jacket and aerosol can found at Solana Beach over the weekend could be linked directly to the Navy, and, he said, he doubts that the can was hazardous.

Miller said the syringe was found at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, one of the county’s more popular destinations for surfers, swimmers, sunbathers and families. The can was found at Stone Steps in Solana Beach. It bore the insignia of NAVAIRDEVCEN, which Wicklund said is an acronym for Naval Air Development Center.

“It’s a cleaning compound, commonly used, and I just don’t believe it’s hazardous material,” he said.