Delaney
CONCORD, N.H. (Legal Newsline) - New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney announced a settlement on Wednesday with Concord Hospital resolving allegations of hazardous waste violations.
Capital Regional Health Care Corporation, also known as Concord Hospital Inc., allegedly failed to identify certain pharmaceutical wastes as hazardous wastes, shipping the waste to facilities not authorized to accept it.
Thirty pharmaceuticals are specifically listed as hazardous waste, while numerous other pharmaceuticals -- because of such characteristics as corrosiveness, ablility to be ignited, and toxicity or reactivity -- are considered hazardous wastes. If hazardous wastes are not identified by the generator at the point of generation, they cannot be properly managed, Delaney says.
The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services also alleges that Concord Hospital failed to identify hazardous waste alcohols, solvents and used oils for recycling and failed to follow certain hazardous waste management requirements.
The allegations do not pertain to infectious, or biohazards, wastes, such as expended needles.
Under the terms of the settlement, a total penalty of $205,000 will be assessed to Concord Hospital. The hospital will be credited $50,000 of the total penalty if it provides free, state-approved training related to the management of pharmaceutical wastes to New Hampshire-based healthcare facilities. The remaining $155,000 will be paid over the next several months.
Concord Hospital quickly corrected its problems once the DES identified them and was cooperative with the case, Delaney says.