New Needle Disposal Law

New law may jeopardize used needle and syringe drop boxes
By Ellie Oleson CORRESPONDENT

Trash hauling can be hazardous, particularly for those at risk of being stuck with a used hypodermic needle. To try to prevent such incidents, the Massachusetts Public Health Council approved regulations banning needles from the residential trash stream as of 2010, but related laws already in effect have some health officials concerned. Several communities have established medical “sharps” collection programs for safe disposal, but one state law could undermine these programs and lead to more carelessly disposed of needles in parks and playgrounds, according to Dr. Leonard E. Morse, health commissioner in Worcester.

The city launched Operation Yellow Box on May 12. Four U.S. Postal Service-grade, heavy metal, securely locked drop boxes painted glossy yellow and funded through the Hoche-Scofield Foundation, are scattered throughout the city: at AIDS Project Worcester on Green Street, the Family Health Center on Queen Street, the Senior Center on Providence Street and Great Brook Valley Health Center on Tacoma Street. Each is identified in English, Spanish and Vietnamese as a needle and syringe drop box. The boxes are emptied weekly by licensed medical waste disposal specialists. “There has been no vandalism or abuse. They are pristine,” said Dr. Morse, after checking the boxes recently. “Since May, we have collected 80 gallons of used syringes that are not on our streets and in our parks in the city,” Dr. Morse said. But the program is in jeopardy, he said. “Unbeknownst to me, the state Legislature issued new laws that require that sharps users put their needles in leak-proof, rigid, puncture-resistant and shatterproof containers. One-third of the 3 billion sharps used outside medical facilities in the United States are used by injection drug abusers. They are not going to put their needles in containers. The Worcester Department of Public Health is concerned about careless disposal of needles in our parks, playgrounds and streets.” Dr. Morse said that “many loose syringes and needles have been deposited” in the yellow boxes. “This law defeats the purpose of our collection. If that law is upheld, the program will be a complete failure. We will continue to collect used needles and will seek an amendment to the law. The next generation should not see hypodermic needles on the streets and parks as part of their normal habitat.” “If used syringes and needles were packaged as the new law requires, it would be perfectly safe to dispose of them in the municipal waste stream,” he said. Massachusetts Department of Public Health spokeswoman Donna E. Rheaume said no comment was received at the public hearing or during the comment period on the law or regulations placing restrictions on the types of containers that may be used for sharps. “We are aware of concerns expressed subsequent to the public hearing by Project Yellow Box,” she said. “Millions of needles end up in the trash every week” in Massachusetts, said Ms. Rheaume. Hopefully, soon most sharps will end up in safety kiosks instead of household trash, she said. The Massachusetts Public Health Council approved regulations in June 2008 which ban the disposal of sharps in household waste as of July 1, 2010, said Ms. Rheaume. The DPH encourages communities to set up sharps collection programs and has purchased 30 kiosks for placement in HIV-AIDS prevention, education and treatment centers to help encourage safe disposal of sharps in cities. DPH has offered three of its funded syringe disposal kiosks to Worcester and is waiting to hear from the city, Ms. Rheaume said. Dr. Morse said the first of the new kiosks just arrived in the city and will be used. He said he would like to place additional yellow boxes at the Willis Center on Chandler Street, the Division of Public Health office on Meade Street and at two retail pharmacies. Auburn just launched its sharps collection program last week, when it opened a sharps kiosk in Town Hall. The kiosk was to move to its permanent location in the CVS pharmacy at 676 Southbridge St. on Aug. 26. Andrew R. Pelletier, director of public health in Auburn, said he “fully supported Dr. Morse’s beneficial service to Worcester,” but that in Auburn, the problem is more with legally used medical sharps than with drug abusers’ needles. “I don’t want to take anything away from the Worcester program, and I would stand with Dr. Morse in his attempts to protect the citizens of Worcester. In Auburn, we have the ability to tell everyone to put the needles in the individual containers we will supply before disposing of them in our kiosk,” Mr. Pelletier said. Amy M. Urevich, health inspector in Auburn, said that as more medical procedures require at-home injections and tests, the number of syringes, lancets and hypodermic needles in the trash “can be alarming.” She said that those living with diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fertility problems or other health issues might require several injections or blood tests per day, each time with a new needle or lancet. “We don’t want people putting their sharps in coffee cans or laundry detergent bottles that can end up in the recycling. We have free individual one-quart or one-gallon sharps containers people can take home, use, then dispose of in the kiosk when full and take home a new container,” Ms. Urevich said. “The containers are not childproof and should be kept out of reach of children. They are not for knives or razor blades.” The cost of the Auburn program is being funded by the Auburn trash and recycling company Casella Waste Services, which hired Aftermath Cleaning Co., a licensed crime-scene cleaner, to empty the kiosk. The Auburn Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club of Auburn and Harmon Home Health of Worcester donated 600 individual sharps containers for the program. “Instead of telling people what they can’t do, we want to tell them what they can do, safely and legally,” Mr. Pelletier said. Nancy E. Allen, director of public health in Shrewsbury, said her community has had a sharps disposal program in place for several years. The large sharps container is in the Health Department’s Town Hall office. Medical Waste Disposal Co. regularly removes the sharps from the container. All sharps must be in individual containers, which the health department will provide, if necessary. “The program costs the town about $400 per year. It’s worth it to protect people on the trash trucks from hazardous exposure,” Ms. Allen said. Robert M. Stodolski, municipal account manager for Central Mass Disposal Inc. in Auburn, said his trash haulers are told to “be aware” while working. “People are stuck on rare occasions. I worked on the back of a truck and I have the scars to prove it. It’s like driving down the road in a car. It can be hazardous.” Dr. Morse said one custodian in the city was clearing a trash chute in a multistory housing complex when he was stuck by a needle. “He was treated against HIV-AIDS for six months and was very frightened.” If a trash hauler, custodian or anyone is stuck, the source of the needle is found and the person responsible for putting it in the trash or the municipality responsible for the trash is contacted, if possible. There can be serious consequences. According to state law, “improper disposal of infectious or physically dangerous medical or biological waste may result in penalties of up to $25,000 or two years in a correction facility.”

Cleaning Up After Violent Deaths in Florida

By JILL SHATZEN Special to The Sun
BRANDON KRUSE/The Gainesville Sun

Crystal Pinkston and her husband Dan Pinkston own Accident Cleaners Inc., a business that specializes in cleaning up after a death — the blood, fluids, etc. — so that grieving families don’t have to.

Dan and Crystal Pinkston say they lead as normal a life as they can, given their occupation. But when their business gets the call to clean up a mess, we’re not talking an ordinary mess.
Their business is Accident Cleaners Inc., a trauma and crime scene cleanup service that Dan, 37, has owned and operated since 2001 and now shares with his wife, Crystal, 25.

Their job is to clean up the aftermath of a death — the blood, fluids, etc. — so that grieving family members don’t have to. The glossy brochure they place into the hands of their heartbroken clients displays photos of sad faces and words like, “Compassion in Crisis” and “You repair your heart, let us repair your home.” And that’s what they do.

“You’ve got to be careful,” Dan said. “You don’t want to use the word ‘understand’ because you don’t understand. So we try to be as polite as we can be and get the job done fast and quick so they can get on with their healing.”

The unusual business idea was the brainchild of Dan Pinkston, who, after working as a firefighter with the Ocala Fire Department for more than a decade, said he began to see a trend. He said many times he would be on a job where casualties occurred and the family members would look to the firemen to clean up the mess.

“The thing is, the fire department doesn’t do it, the police department doesn’t do it, so the family members were left to clean it up,” he said, before Crystal added, “They really had no choice.”
That’s when Dan Pinkston said he realized that there was a demand for a business that would do the job that no one wanted to do, and do it in a sensitive, compassionate way. He traveled to Boston in 2001 to take a week-long class to become certified by the American Bio-Recovery Association but found he had already fulfilled many of the requirements through the fire department.

After being in business for about four years, Dan met Crystal through a set-up by a mutual friend, and the two were married in October 2007. For Crystal Pinkston, taking on the business wasn’t as big of a shock as it could have been.

“I was in the janitorial services business before we met,” she said. “I started my own business and had it for about five years or so, and he was in this business already, so it was just kind of transferring over to a different kind of cleaning.”

The Pinkstons said that while business has steadily increased since they began in 2001, there are limits to the number of calls they receive. On average, they said they receive about two calls per month, and added that several have been high-profile crimes.

“We’re not living in Miami or New York,” Dan said. “We don’t have the crime that those areas have. We stay busy, but it’s not going off the charts and we’re happy about that.” Crystal agreed, saying, “You don’t just sit around and pray for business by any means. Business is good, but we don’t want to encourage anyone.”

Both said that sometimes it’s hard not to take the job home with them. Dan said the hardest job he has ever had to do was clean up after the suicide of a 12-year-old boy. For Crystal, it’s the homicides that hit her the hardest.

“In a homicide you have to think about the fact that someone was murdered,” she said. “They were taken by surprise; it was not their free will to come in and have this happen to them. It’s difficult for me just seeing how someone struggled trying to stay alive in these cases.”
Still, they maintain that being in it together is what helps them through.

“It just all goes back to helping people,” Dan said. “That’s why you do it.”