UCLA Settles Case on Medical Waste Disposal : Environment: University agrees to pay $49,500 and close campus crematory used to incinerate human remains from its medical school.

Without admitting guilt, UCLA has agreed to pay $49,500 and strengthen its medical waste practices to settle charges that it violated the law in disposing of human remains at its medical school, the university and state health officials announced Tuesday.

UCLA and the state Department of Health Services said they were happy with the agreement, which stems from an Oct. 31 incident in which the skipper of a burial-at-sea service accidentally broke open a box of ashes that UCLA had wanted dumped into Santa Monica Bay.

The box contained cremated remains of cadavers used by the UCLA Medical School, but also pieces of glass and surgical equipment that the university admitted should not have been included.

Under the agreement, UCLA, which faced criminal prosecution and fines, said it will permanently close an on-campus crematory and send all cadavers used by its medical school off campus for disposal and burial. Another provision calls for the university to convene a statewide conference on medical waste management and prepare a video on sea waste management practices.

Raymond Eden, dean for administration at the medical school, said the settlement “provides the framework for new procedures that will ensure the effective handling of medical waste.”

But Eden continued to insist that the university was not admitting that it had broke a series of environmental and waste control laws.

He disputed a contention that the monetary award amounted to a fine “because we have not been convicted of anything.”

The skipper of the boat, David R. (Red) Saber, and environmentalists demanded an investigation as soon as the boxes of contaminated material were discovered on Saber’s dock, contending that the contents of the dozen boxes left with Saber for disposal at sea were potentially toxic and posed a serious public health hazard.

In the settlement, the state accepted an analysis by a microbiologist hired by UCLA who found that the remains had been incinerated at temperatures high enough to render the material sterile, thus posing no health threat.

Learning of the settlement, Saber called the results laughable because they came from a firm hired by UCLA. He said he would probably file a civil suit against UCLA.

Terry Tamminen of the Santa Monica Bay Keeper, an environmental watchdog group, was critical of the settlement, saying that the state bungled the investigation by not taking immediate control of the boxes of remains upon learning of the incident.

The boxes remained with UCLA throughout the state investigation, although state officials were allowed to inspect and photograph them.

The state, in announcing the agreement, cited the analysis by the firm hired by UCLA that 95% of the boxes contained cremated ashes, and that 5% was incinerated glass and metal.

University and state officials had no explanation for charges by Saber and one state investigator that hair was found on some remains and rubber stoppers were in some bottles, indicating a possible low temperature in the incinerator.

Jack McGurk, head of the medical waste management branch of the state Department of Health Services, called the agreement “a good settlement for the state.”

McGurk indicated that the fact that UCLA was a student- and taxpayers-supported institution figured in the monetary settlement. “I think it wakes them up. People could have argued that the amount could have been higher, but on the other hand the taxpayers would foot the bill, or the students,” McGurk said.

McGurk said the state alleged that UCLA had violated the Medical Waste Management Act and other provisions of the state Health and Safety Code, but that the charges never got to a formal stage.

The state official said: “As far as we are concerned, the case is closed.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is known to still be investigating the matter, leading to the possibility of federal charges.