On Friday, January 31 the General Assembly’s Environment Committee will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 80, An Act Concerning the Burning of Medical Waste. This bill would close a loophole that would allow Reworld to burn medical waste without having to follow EPA federal emissions standards for a medical waste incinerator.
EPA holds medical waste incinerators to more stringent standards because medical waste contains a high fraction of materials including plastics that release toxic emissions including when burnt. These emissions include dioxins, PFAS, and heavy metals, which accumulate in the environment and in our bodies and cause a range of serious and fatal illnesses including cancers, organ damage, cardiovascular and neurological disease, immune and endocrine system disorders, and developmental and reproductive problems.
If passed into law, DEEP – which is recommending approving permits to burn medical waste in Bristol using outdated emissions standards, with no added protections for air pollution (or action on noise pollution) – will have to go back to the drawing board.
What you can do
Senate Bill 80 will only advance if our legislators hear that this is a priority from YOU by January 31.
- Submit written testimony by clicking this link Choose 1/31/2025 as the hearing date and SB00080 as the bill number, click support, and then type in your comments or upload a file with them, then click Submit Testimony. A form letter you can paste in as a basis for your testimony is below.
- Register to speak live at the hearing by clicking this link You can speak in person or by Zoom. Sign-ups may close the day before, so if you plan on speaking, please sign up by 3 PM on January 30. Speakers only get a couple minutes, so you should also send in written testimony.
- KEY TALKING POINT: If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. If it burns medical waste – it IS a medical waste incinerator and should have to follow the emissions limits for amedical waste incinerator.
Thank you to Senator Martin, Senator Sampson, and to Representative Mastrofrancesco for introducing and sponsoring this important legislation!
If you have questions about how the process works, or how you can get involved, please e-mail: contactus@bristolresidents.org. And SHARE this page with anyone that you think can help.
Suggested letter
You can copy and paste this (and edit as you see fit) into the written testimony submission form for Senate Bill 80.
Honorable Chairs and Members of the Environment Committee,
I am writing to express my strong support for Senate Bill 80, An Act Concerning the Burning of Medical Waste. This bill would close a loophole that allows an incinerator to burn medical waste without having to follow the federal standards that apply to medical waste incinerators.
Medical waste contains a high fraction of materials including plastics that release toxic emissions including when combusted. These emissions include dioxins, PFAS, and heavy metals, which accumulate in the environment and in our bodies and cause a range of serious and fatal illnesses including cancers, organ damage, cardiovascular and neurological disease, immune and endocrine system disorders, and developmental and reproductive problems.
In recognition of the hazards posed by medical waste, in 2013 the EPA adopted more stringent emissions limits for the incineration of medical waste. These reasonable, science-based standards have been successfully instituted at medical waste incinerators nationwide.
Reworld, Inc. is seeking approval to open the largest medical waste incineration operation in the Northeast at its Bristol incinerator. Unfortunately, state regulations do not currently require this proposal to follow the standards for a medical waste incinerator. To ensure Connecticut does not become a toxics hotspot, I ask your Committee to move all bills addressing incinerator pollution (SB 60 and 80, and HB 5107 and 5108).
In advancing SB80, I ask that you clarify the first sentence of the bill to read that “No person shall operate a facility that incinerates medical waste unless such facility is in compliance with federal emissions limits for a new or newly modified hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerator as set forth in 40 CFR 60.52c)”. This language will avoid any ambiguity as to which standards are intended.
I urge you to safeguard Connecticut’s environment and the health of its residents by expeditiously advancing SB80 with the clarification described above.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME HERE