California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Wednesday announced a settlement with the clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics to resolve allegations regarding the unlawful disposal of hazardous and medical waste and protected health information at its facilities statewide.
Bonta said part of the settlement states that the lab will pay nearly $5 million in penalties, costs, and supplemental environmental projects. Additionally, they will also make significant changes to their operations and practices in their facilities in the state.
The settlement included several county district attorneys in Alameda, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Ventura, and Yolo counties.
San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said Quest Diagnostics will pay $3.99 million in civil penalties, $700,000 for reimbursement of attorney fees and investigation costs, and $300,000 for a project that would support environmental training and enforcement in California.
He said the filing was a result of over 30 inspections that had been conducted at the labs and patient service centers statewide. A patient service center is a location where people can go to have their samples collected for screenings.
Allegedly, during inspections of compactors and dumpsters, items located included hundreds of containers of chemicals, bleach, reagents, batteries, electronic waste, unredacted medical information; medical waste — including specimen containers for blood and urine — as well as hazardous waste such as used batteries, solvents, and flammable liquids.
“Our initial inquiry in San Joaquin County prompted us to engage with relevant agencies,” Freitas said in a statement.
He said the alleged unlawful disposals violate several state laws.
After Quest Diagnostics was notified about the investigations, they implemented numerous changes to bring its facilities into compliance with California law, Bonta said in a statement.
A Quest Diagnostics spokesperson said in a statement that they take patient privacy and protection of the environment very seriously and have made investments to implement industry practices.
“These include investing in technologies for treatment of biological waste, secured destruction of patient information, programs to maximize recycling efforts and minimize waste-to-landfill disposal, waste-to-energy recovery of non-recyclable wastes, and enhanced waste audit and inspection measures to ensure continued compliance with applicable laws,” a spokesperson from Quest Diagnostics said.
They hired an independent environmental auditor to review the disposal of waste at their facilities, modified their operating and training procedures to improve handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste, medical waste, and personal health information at all four laboratories and over 600 patient service centers in California.
Will the money go to pay down the state debt, or go into a slush fund?