Friday, April 3, 1998 | 10:15 a.m.
In the aftermath of the North Las Vegas City Council revoking the business license of a medical waste recycler, area hospitals are tucking their heads down and running with the ball themselves.
The City Council revoked the business license of US EnviroMedical Corp. (US Med), 3890 Walnut St., Wednesday.
North Las Vegas Police served four search warrants on US Med March 20 and seized the yard where medical waste was buried.
Sunrise Hospital, which generates 12,000 pounds of medical waste a day, has started autoclaving its own solid waste. The hospital is using a sterilizer that it purchased in 1992.
"It will be more costly for us because we have to run our equipment and buy bags," Ann Lynch, vice president of community services at Sunrise, said. "We are able to handle our own at this time. But this is not a business we want to stay in. We were getting three pickups (from US Med) a day before."
Since US Med lost its business license, Sunrise has contracted with Environmental Technologies Inc. of Las Vegas to dispose of its sharps containers including used syringes, glassware and plastic ware.
Jim Sanderson, facilities manager at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, also has resumed business with ET. The company picks up between 10 and 15 30-gallon bags of medical waste a day.
"It's pretty upsetting to us (not having US Med)," Sanderson said of having only one waste disposal company available in Southern Nevada. "We feel vulnerable. From all I heard, US Med was very responsive."
Trish Lampro, a spokeswoman for University Medical Center, said the hospital was making "arrangements for proper disposal," but declined to say which company they were using.
Lake Mead Hospital in North Las Vegas has resumed business with ET. According to spokesman Terry Allen, the hospital had been using US Med for a year.
A state certified environmental manager who supervised the excavation called in Environmental Technologies, a subsidiary of Silver State Disposal Service. US Med and Silver State are competitors and are entangled in lawsuits for allegedly trying to steal each other's customers.
On March 26, attorneys for US Med filed a motion to unseal the affidavit and to suppress all matters seized pursuant to the search warrants being issued.
US Med's attorney Steven Barringer had asked the North Las Vegas City Council to postpone license revocation proceedings until a ruling was issued on the unsealing, but council members were not swayed to take action.
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