BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 649
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
649 (Patterson) - As Amended April 16, 2015
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|Policy |Environmental Safety and Toxic |Vote:|7 - 0 |
|Committee: |Materials | | |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable:
SUMMARY:
This bill allows law enforcement agencies to use approved
prescription drug incinerators up to four times per year to
treat and dispose of medical waste as specified. Specifically,
this bill:
AB 649
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1)Amends the Medical Waste Management Act (MWMA) to require any
alternative medical waste treatment designed to treat
pharmaceutical waste, including a pharmaceutical incinerator,
to be evaluated and approved by the Department of Public
Health (DPH).
2)Allows a law enforcement agency that operates a prescription
drug takeback program to use an approved pharmaceutical
incinerator up to four times per year.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Minor increased costs to DPH (special fund), likely of less than
$100,000, to approve alternative medical waste treatments.
COMMENTS:
1)Rationale. Under the MWMA, pharmaceutical waste must be
incinerated. According to DPH, there are no incinerators in
California permitted for the treatments of this kind of waste.
Permitted in-state facilities treat biohazardous and medical
sharps waste through steam sterilization (autoclaving) or by
an approved alternative treatment technology.
According to the author, law enforcement personnel
administrating takeback programs are currently hauling or
shipping their wastes to one of three federally compliant
Large Municipal Waste Combustor (LMWC) or Standards and Small
Municipal Waste Combustor (SMWC) of which there are three in
California: 1) Commerce Refuse-to-Energy Facility (Commerce);
2) Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (Long Beach); and 3)
Stanislaus County Resource Recovery Facility (Crow's Landing).
However, none of these facilities are permitted under the
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MWMA to treat pharmaceutical waste.
This bill allows a law enforcement agency that operates a
prescription drug takeback program to use an alternative
medical waste treatment, including a pharmaceutical
incinerator, up to four times per year to treat and dispose of
medical waste.
2)Background. The United States Environmental Protection Agency
(US EPA) issued a guidance letter on September 2012 on the
disposal of household pharmaceuticals collected by takeback
programs. The letter recommended pharmaceutical waste be sent
to a permitted hazardous waste combustor, and, when that is
not feasible, be sent to a large or small municipal combustor.
The US EPA also acknowledges that it does not want
[incineration] costs to discourage takeback events and
subsequently recommended incineration facilities that meet the
US EPA's Large Municipal Waste Combustor (LMWC) Standards and
Small Municipal Waste Combustor (SMWC) Standards when
hazardous waste combustion is not feasible.
3)Pharmaceutical Waste. Pharmaceutical waste is segregated into
three different categories for proper treatment: controlled,
hazardous, and non-hazardous.
Drugs and other substances that are considered controlled
substances under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA)
are categorized based on whether they have a currently
accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their
relative abuse potential, and likelihood of causing dependence
when abused. These pharmaceuticals are managed differently
than hazardous and non-hazardous pharmaceuticals; controlled
substances must be disposed of in a manner that renders them
non-retrievable in accordance with federal regulations, unlike
the other categories of pharmaceutical waste.
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4)Federal Programs. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
hosts National Prescription Drug Takeback Days to provide
opportunities for disposing controlled substances. To date,
the DEA has held 9 takeback days, with the most recent event
held in September 2014. The DEA initiated these takeback days
four years ago because at that time the CSA made no legal
provision for people to dispose of unwanted controlled
substance prescription drugs except to give them to law
enforcement, and the CSA banned pharmacies and hospitals from
accepting them.
Since the DEA's first Takeback Day, the DEA has developed
regulations that outline methods the public can use to
transfer pharmaceutical controlled substances and other
prescription drugs to authorized collectors for the purpose of
disposal.
The DEA has announced it plans to cease holding its takeback
days because the new disposal regulations are registered and
in effect for disposing controlled substances. According to
the DEA, law enforcement continues to have autonomy with
respect to how they collect controlled substance prescription
drugs, including holding takeback events. Any person or
entity-DEA registrant or non-registrant-may partner with law
enforcement to conduct takeback events.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 649
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