The nation - news from aug. 4, 1988

The Senate voted to create a mandatory system to track medical waste disposal, a problem that has left some Northeast shores littered with used syringes and made beach closings a summer of

’88 ritual. The bill, drafted by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), would require the Environmental Protection Agency to track hospital waste disposal in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut

through an elaborate paper trail, mandating detailed manifests of medical items from “point of generation to point of disposal.” It also would require the EPA to monitor beaches in New

York, New Jersey and New England for medical waste. MORE TO READ