Health Department Cites Kaiser for Illegal Dumping

The County Department of Health Services has issued four notices of violation to Kaiser Foundation Hospital for dumping biomedical and infectious waste in a county landfill at least seven times in the past four months, investigators said Wednesday.

Each of the violations could lead to a fine of at least $25,000, said Dan Avera, assistant deputy director of Environmental Health Services for the county.

Avera pointed out that, if violators “knowingly” disposed of such waste, the penalty could be as large as $100,000 per incident. He said the County Department of Health Services and the district attorney’s office are conducting a joint investigation of Kaiser, from which infectious waste was dumped in the Sycamore landfill in Santee on at least seven occasions between Feb. 9 and May 2.

A spokesman for Kaiser, on Zion Avenue in Allied Gardens, said the violator may be an employee unaware of hospital policies governing the dumping of such waste, or the person is knowingly breaking the law.

“We now have a toxic waste inspector on the premises 24 hours a day, and it’s someone we installed just in the past couple of weeks, in response to these charges,” said Jim McBride, the Kaiser spokesman. “We’re conducting an intense educational program among our staff to make sure everyone is aware of the problem, to make sure they understand the policies and how truly serious this is.”

Avera said county health regulations mandate that hospitals treat infectious waste through a process called autoclaving, which heats the material under pressure. Only after that process is complete can the waste be taken to a facility authorized to receive infectious waste.