Linen in Alley May Have Been Hazardous

A bundle that she believes could have been hazardous medical waste is finally gone from an alley behind her home, but Sandra Hunt is unhappy with governmental response.

A registered nurse, she is upset because the sheets, blanket, towels and especially the disposable gown she discovered near her Winnetka Avenue home July 15 may have been contaminated.

“The gown was the kind you wear when you are seeing a patient with tuberculosis or AIDS,” she said. “And then you throw it in a hamper marked ‘Contaminated’ to be burned.”

Her calls to City Council and mayor’s offices brought no response; the county sent an inspector who, she said, did not touch the items but gave her neighbor a citation to remove them.

Mayson Kodama , acting north area manager for the county’s Environmental Management Services Office, said a “first-response” inspector assesses complaints, which usually involve debris such as old newspapers and tree trimmings.

Kodama said if there “was any indication it [the bundle] was infectious medical waste, such as gauze with blood on it or needles, we would notify a HazMat team.”

Kodama said material deemed not hazardous but found within five feet of a property line is the owner’s responsibility. If found on city property, he said, the bureau of sanitation would be notified to pick it up.

Hunt disagrees with the inspector’s assessment. “People don’t dump perfectly good linen unless something is wrong,” she said. “My concern is that someone would rummage through it and catch something.”

The linen did slowly begin to disappear, Hunt reported, first the blanket, followed by the sheets and towels. The disposable gown was in a trash can Tuesday and gone with the weekly garbage pickup by Wednesday.

“It’s unfair that everyone is passing the buck back to the citizens,” Hunt said. “It might have been nuclear medicine waste. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”