The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in a settlement of alleged hazardous waste violations at a medical center in White River Junction, Vt., has agreed to implement a comprehensive chemicals and hazardous waste management inventory system at all V.A. health care facilities across New England.
The Vermont center was cited in 2005 with improper storage and handling of materials including potentially explosive waste, stored in clinical areas, that was estimated to be the equivalent of several sticks of dynamite.
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The new system is expected to help facilities replace hazardous products with less-hazardous substitutes, maintain accurate inventories and ease access to material safety data sheets (MSDS). It will include a comprehensive software system for tracking chemical purchase, use, storage and disposal, and will incorporate pollution reduction measures.
Hospitals generate a wide range of hazardous wastes, and produce 1 percent of all municipal solid waste nationwide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Establishing the tracking system is expected to cost the V.A. at least $500,000, according to the EPA’s regional office in Boston. Under the settlement, it said, the V.A. has also agreed to pay a cash penalty of $49,748.
Additional information is available at www.epa.gov/region01.
