Incinerators May Close Over Dioxin Rule

A new state rule to curb emissions of highly toxic dioxins could force more than 100 hospital incinerators to shut down within a year, air quality officials said Monday.

The hospitals and health care centers, which use the incinerators to burn both infectious medical waste and regular garbage, must cut dioxin fumes by 99% under a regulation adopted Friday by the California Air Resources Board.

“These new standards will ensure that public exposure to a significant cancer-causing pollutant is virtually eliminated,” said Jananne Sharpless, the board’s chairwoman and the state’s secretary of environmental affairs.

Hospital officials said shutting down the incinerators will put a severe financial burden on small hospitals. About 20% of the state’s hospitals, or 146 hospitals, operate their own incinerators.

“There are regional incinerators they can haul their waste to, but the cost is significant,” said Robert Heilig, director of professional services for the California Assn. of Hospitals and Health Systems, a group representing more than 500 hospitals in the state. He said most larger hospitals, especially in Southern California, dispose of their waste in landfills or ship it to regional incinerators.

The ARB estimates the rule would add between 36 cents and 43 cents to the $800 daily cost per bed at most hospitals.

The Environmental Protection Agency has called dioxins the most potent cancer-causing substance ever tested in animals. Dioxins are accidentally created during poor or incomplete combustion when waste is burned.

About 12,000 tons of infectious medical waste, including bandages, needles and human tissue, are produced each year in California hospitals.