Posted on 07/24/2006 7:02:25 PM PDT by BOBWADE
Men fined for illegally handling medical waste
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Two men have been ordered to pay $20,000 in fines for storing infectious medical waste in a Columbia home.
During a hearing Friday in Boone County Circuit Court, Majed El-Dweik, 40, of Columbia, was ordered to pay $5,000 to the state, while Moumen Kuziez, of Baldwin, was fined $15,000.
Investigators with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources say the men were trying to develop a waste-hauling business and found it was cheaper to break the rules.
“This was an example of careless handling, storage and transportation of infectious hazardous wastes,” said Scott Holste, a spokesman for Attorney General Jay Nixon. “Those who disregard the law need to pay a price for that.”
Authorities began investigating in October 2002 after contractors saw containers marked as biohazards inside a home El-Dweik owned.
Authorities ordered licensed handlers to haul away the waste. Instead, unlicensed handlers from Kuziez's M.W.A. Enterprises and another company illegally hauled the waste away and destroyed it in Arkansas.
El-Dweik pleaded guilty in April 2003 to two misdemeanor charges of illegal disposition and management of hazardous waste. He received a suspended sentence and two years' probation.
Tom Mingus, El-Dweik's attorney, described the civil judgment as satisfactory for his client's role.
“My client's not involved with the business,” Mingus said. “He is just an employee of the company.”
Front company for sleeper cells, IMO...
I wonder if they got a good look-over from the FBI guys?
ping! This was in your newspaper tonight.
Just spreading the germs Americans won't?
Yup, what is meant by infection waste? HIV, Hepatitis? what kind of dirty bombs could they make with that kind of filth?
Hard to say. HIV and Hepatitis aren't spread simply by airborne germs - they have to get directly into the blood stream. And plenty of "infectious" categorized medical waste is really "potentially infectious." They don't know that it contains disease-causing microbes; they're just being careful.
I suspect these guys were just being greedy. There's money to be made in waste disposal, and of course you pocket more profits if you don't bother to correctly dispose!
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