California department unlawfully fines medical waste disposal company

The California Department of Public Health unlawfully fined a medical waste disposal company for disposing its materials out of state, a report by Courthouse News says. A federal judge granted Daniels, Chicago, an injunction against the department’s director, Karen Smith.

California’s Medical Waste Management Act (MWMA) requires medical waste be incinerated at a permitted facility or disposed of through another method approved by the department.

Daniels manufactures the Sharpsmart, a reusable container system that transports and disposes of used needles, syringes and other medical waste that launched in 1999. For a period of time, California did how have a facility capable of treating Sharpsmart’s medical wastes, so the company took them to facilities in other states that did not require incineration.

Smith sent a notice of violation to Sharpsmart after an inspection of its Fresno, California, facility revealed the company treated wastes at facilities in Kentucky and Indiana that used methods not authorized by the MWMA. The noticed imposed a $567,000 penalty against Daniels for its methods.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill said the state violated Daniels’ constitutional rights, the report says.