Quest Diagnostics to Pay CA Counties $5M in Medical Waste, Patient Data Dump Settlement

Dumpster dives found hundreds of containers of hazardous chemicals; unredacted patient data; and used blood and urine specimen containers.

Quest Diagnostics will pay 10 California counties $5 million to settle allegations that it illegally dumped hazardous and medical waste and protected patient data generated at several of its testing labs and patient service centers, California Attorney General Rob Bonta says.

The settlement comes after 30 inspections conducted by the district attorneys' offices at four Quest Diagnostics laboratories in the California and several of the more than 600 patient service centers statewide.

Regulators reviewed the contents of Quest's compactors and dumpsters and found hundreds of containers of chemicals, bleach, reagents, batteries, and electronic waste; unredacted medical information; medical waste such as used specimen containers for blood and urine; and hazardous waste such as used batteries, solvents, and flammable liquids, the AG says.

The disposals violate California's Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, Unfair Competition Law, and civil laws prohibiting the unauthorized disclosure of personal health information.

After Quest was notified of the infractions, the AG's office notes that the company sought to bring its labs into compliance with California law. It hired an independent environmental auditor to review the disposal of waste at its labs and modified operations and training to improve handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste, medical waste, and patient data at all four laboratories and more than 600 service centers in California.

Under the settlement, Quest will pay $3.9 million in civil penalties, $700,000 in costs, and $300,000 for a Supplemental Environmental Project to support environmental training and enforcement in California.

The affected counties include Alameda, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Ventura, and Yolo.

"We will not allow the public's health to be jeopardized by laboratories who prioritized cutting corners over protecting the health of the very people they were supposed to be caring for," says Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. "This was not an isolated incident by a single Quest Diagnostics testing facility; 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 of these illegal actions."

The settlement also orders Quest to maintain an environmental compliance program, including hiring a third-party waste auditor, and report annually on its status.

Quest Responds

Quest offered this statement: "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. 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."