Stericycle is North America’s largest biohazard waste disposal company. Stericycle uses incinerators to dispose of medical and biohazardous waste. Stericycle prides themselves on “protecting people and brands, promote health and safeguard the environment”. Stericycle has an incinerator located in North Salt Lake City, Utah. Like most incinerators, this site has a permit that specifies the allotted amount of waste they are able to incinerate. This waste is emitted into the atmosphere and at excessive amounts it can be very dangerous. This North Salt Lake City incinerator is situated in a residential community. It is in close proximity to homes and schools. In May 2013, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality – Division of Air Quality, delivered a Notice of Violation and Order to Comply, to Stericycle, due to recent reports stating numerous accounts of exceeding their limit of emissions by 400 times the allotted amount.
When excessive amounts of medical waste are emitted, toxins and hazardous chemicals such as dioxin and mercury pollute the air. Dioxin and mercury are dangerous and possibly lethal. They cause a ray of health problems such as cancer, respiratory issues, birth defects, infertility, diabetes, reoccurring headaches and migraines, causes vital organs to fail and attacks the nervous and immune system. This incinerator is polluting the air at massive rates and it is jeopardizing the health of the residents in the neighbourhood.
Now, Stericycle received an approval by the Utah Legislature to initiate the operation of moving its incinerator to Tooele County far from residential communities. Sign this petition to get Stericycle's dangerous incinerator out of North Salt Lake!
