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Stericycle's Environmental Performance Fails to Get Passing Grade, New Report Says Greenaction and Health Care Without Harm to keep pressure on to stop incineration of medical waste
See Also: 4/10/03 Close Stericycle's waste incinerator in North Salt Lake City, Utah! Read the fact sheet and background Victory! Tribal Members & Greenaction Celebrate Victory against Stericycle Waste Incinerator at Gila River Indian Community reservation in Arizona! Read the press coverage in The Arizona Republic and in industry journals (Solid Waste Report and Native American Report) about the closing of the incinerator! Victory!
Greenaction & Community Victory Closes IES Incinerators!
Four Year Battle Against Toxic Polluter Yields Victory for Community
Health & Environmental Justice!
Read
the Press Coverage, Campaign History and Facts!, and check out Photos
of the torn-down incinerators!
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Health Care Without Harm News Release Community Representatives Travel to Shareholder Meeting to Present Report Card and Call for Phase-Out of Incineration Chicago, Ill, May 6, 2003 - The nation's leading medical waste management company has shown some willingness to improve, but overall, failed to live up to its public claims of environmental responsibility, concludes a new report card hand-delivered today to Stericycle by watchdog group Health Care Without Harm. The report card is posted at www.noharm.org The report card documents that despite progress in some areas - including the recent closure of polluting medical waste incinerators in two low-income communities of color - Stericycle is still operating nine incinerators even though safer, cheaper alternatives are available. Medical waste incinerators are among the largest sources of dioxin and mercury air emissions, and data show that some Stericycle incinerators suffer from malfunctions and breakdowns. Representatives from communities where Stericycle is still operating incinerators traveled to the shareholder meeting to deliver the report card and share their concerns with the company. Martha Hamblin, who lives downwind from a Stericycle incinerator in Haw River, North Carolina, and across the street from two schools, asked Stericycle to stop polluting her community with toxic emissions of mercury, dioxin, hydrochloric acid and chlorine. "On behalf of myself, neighbors, farmers and elementary school children in the vicinity of the incinerator, I ask Stericycle to convert to an alternative technology," Hamblin said. "Stericycle has not been a good neighbor in Salt Lake City," said Utah resident Cindy King. "The company has refused to meet with residents to discuss an upcoming permit renewal process." Kathleen Logan-Smith, who was part of an aggressive community effort to close a problem-ridden Stericycle incinerator in St. Louis, Mo., told the company, "We appreciate the fact that we will no longer witness the thick, black plume of smoke pouring out of the bypass stack. But we are the lucky ones. Closing the incinerators is the only way to truly protect communities." The report card also gives Stericycle unsatisfactory marks for ineffective screening to prevent mercury from entering treatment facilities, for incinerating treated wastes, and for problematic air emissions due to equipment failure or other activities leading to bypasses of pollution controls at Stericycle incinerators in Utah, North Carolina, Kansas and Illinois. "In our opinion these practices are unacceptable and don't inspire confidence that the company is truly committed to public health and to phasing out the incineration of medical waste," said Monica Rohde Buckhorn, Health Care Without Harm Steering Committee member. HCWH recommends in the report card that Stericycle shareholders and the board of directors supervise improvement efforts and demand that claims of environmental excellence be supported by documentation. "With diligence and hard work we are confident that Stericycle can bring these grades up and become a model environmentally responsible medical waste management company," Buckhorn said. The report card is a follow up to the 2002 environmental analysis of Stericycle conducted by Health Care Without Harm, an international coalition working to reduce the environmental impact of the health care industry. Both reports can be found at www.noharm.org. Stericycle is the only company providing medical waste disposal services nationally and is the sole provider of health care waste management services in many communities. |