June 4, 2012 at 08:12 PM
The Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to develop a rule to manage hazardous waste pharmaceuticals at health care facilities could address some recent calls from the agency's Inspector General (IG) for new waste rules, though the IG continues to press EPA to update its process for identifying which pharmaceuticals should be handled as hazardous waste. In a May 25 report, “EPA Inaction in Identifying Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals May Result in Unsafe Disposal,” the IG finds EPA has not updated its list of pharmaceuticals that qualify as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation &