News

Ashes from Ebola victim's apartment in limbo

by Walter Pierce

The unresolved fate of the ashes left behind after Ebola waste was destroyed in Texas highlights the problem U.S. hospitals and communities could face in disposing of their own waste.

The unresolved fate of the ashes left behind after Ebola waste was destroyed in Texas highlights the problem U.S. hospitals and communities could face in disposing of their own waste.

Hospitals routinely deal with hazardous medical waste, sealing, transporting and disposing of vials of HIV-infected blood or boxes of used syringes. But Ebola waste is more problematic because of the intense fear of the virus and the sheer amount of the waste, which could include patients' clothes, their mattresses and scores of protective outfits worn and discarded by medical workers.

After Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed Sept. 30 with Ebola, workers piled shoes, carpets, mattresses, bed sheets, clothes and kids' backpacks into 140 55-gallon drums. All of it was ultimately incinerated. But Louisiana officials have refused to allow it to be dumped at a landfill there, so the ashes remain in limbo.