Quest Diagnostics, one of America’s largest medical testing companies, has agreed to pay $5 million to settle charges that it improperly disposed of hazardous chemicals, medical waste and patient information at multiple locations across the Bay Area and California.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the settlement on Wednesday.
“Quest Diagnostics’ illegal disposal of hazardous and medical waste and patient information put families and communities at risk and endangered our environment,” Bonta said. “Let today’s settlement send a clear message that my office will hold corporations, including medical services providers, accountable.”
The company, based in Secaucus, New Jersey, operates at 623 sites in California.
It provides testing for cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, COVID-19 and employment and court-ordered drug testing.
Ten district attorneys from Alameda, San Mateo, Monterey, Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Ventura, and Yolo counties joined Bonta in the legal action.
According to the prosecutors, the district attorneys’ offices conducted more than 30 inspections at Quest laboratories and patient service centers around the state starting in 2020.
They discovered hundreds of containers of chemicals, including bleach, solvents and flammable liquids, illegally thrown in dumpsters and trash compactors, along with batteries and electronic waste, unredacted patient information, and medical waste such as used specimen containers for blood and urine.
Through the sloppy disposal methods, the company which has 50,000 employees nationwide, and revenues of $9.8 billion in 2022, violated various laws, including the Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, Unfair Competition Law, and civil laws prohibiting the disclosure of personal health information.
The company has since hired an independent environmental auditor to review waste disposal at its facilities, and is reforming its training procedures for the handling, storage and disposal of hazardous waste, medical waste, and personal health information. Under the settlement, it is required to file annual reports with the state on its progress.
“Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously and has made significant investments to implement industry best practices to ensure hazardous waste, medical waste, and confidential patient information are disposed of properly,” said Dennis Moynihan, a Quest Diagnostics spokesman.
“These include investing in technologies for treatment of biological waste, secured destruction of patient information, programs to maximize recycling efforts and minimize waste-to-landfill disposal, waste-to-energy recovery of non-recyclable wastes, and enhanced waste audit and inspection measures to ensure continued compliance with applicable laws.”
The district attorneys said the shoddy disposal practices were widespread.
“This was not an isolated incident by a single Quest Diagnostics testing facility,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “This was Quest Diagnostics laboratories and testing facilities across the state skirting California’s hazardous waste laws while ignoring the very real environmental and health impacts.”
The company will pay $3,999,500 in civil penalties that will be divided between the counties and several state agencies that oversee hazardous waste; $700,000 in costs and $300,000 to pay for environmental training and enforcement programs in California.
