Tuesday, August 18, 2009

VA Hospital in Topeka Admits EPA Violations

VA hospitals agree to pay penalty

By The Capital-Journal
August 18, 2009 - 4:13pm

Kansas City, Kan. -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Eastern Kansas Health Care System has agreed to pay a $51,501 civil penalty and spend nearly a half-million dollars on a plan to manage pharmaceutical and chemical wastes, all in an agreement to settle alleged violations of hazardous waste laws at its hospitals in Leavenworth and Topeka, according to a news release issued Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The agreement, filed Tuesday in Kansas City, Kan., resolves a series of violations noted during inspections of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Veterans Medical Center in Leavenworth in January 2006 and the Colmery O'Neil Veterans Medical Center in Topeka in April 2006, the news release stated.

A three-count complaint filed Jan. 19, 2009, accused DVA of one count of failure to perform hazardous waste determinations; one count of operation of a hazardous waste treatment, storage or disposal facility without a permit; and one count of offering hazardous waste for shipment to a transporter without a manifest and offering hazardous waste to an unregistered transporter.

The complaint, according to the news release, alleged that the 2006 inspections by EPA Region 7 staff found multiple violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, including:

-- Failure to perform proper hazardous waste determinations at Leavenworth and Topeka.

-- Failure to properly manage hazardous waste satellite accumulation containers in the Histology Lab and Lab Storage Room at Leavenworth.

-- Failure to properly mark hazardous waste containers in the Histology Lab storage room, a paint waste storage room and one other room at Leavenworth.

-- Failure to keep proper emergency information posted near telephones at both facilities.

-- Failure to document all weekly inspections of hazardous waste storage areas at Leavenworth.

-- Failure to conduct weekly inspections of an area storing large quantities of acute hazardous waste at Topeka.

-- Failure to make proper advance arrangements with local fire and police departments and other emergency responders for responding to emergencies at both facilities.

-- Failure to develop a proper emergency contingency plan for the Topeka facility.

-- Failure to document a personnel training plan for the Topeka facility.

-- Failure to store incompatible wastes without proper segregation at Leavenworth.

-- Unpermitted on-site incineration of some hazardous wastes at both facilities.

-- Unlawful shipping of hazardous waste between the two facilities without proper manifests, including the transportation of hazardous waste from Leavenworth to Topeka by an unauthorized waste transporter.

CIA Opposes Vietnam Veterans of America Class Action

Courthouse News Service
Tuesday, August 18, 2009Last Update: 10:50 AM PT

CIA Wants Veterans' Class Action Dismissed
By ROBERT KAHN


(CN) - The CIA asked a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss the Vietnam Veterans of America's class-action seeking damages for the Army's and CIA's chemical experiments on veterans during the Cold War. The CIA says the claims are time-barred, the plaintiffs lack standing, the complaints are not justiciable, and raises other objections in its 33-page federal filing.

Exposed Fla. Veteran Says Contracted HIV, Will Sue

Fla. veteran says he is HIV positive, will sue VA
By LISA ORKIN EMMANUEL
Associated Press Writer

"A South Florida veteran who claims he contracted HIV during an endoscopic colonoscopy at a Miami Department of Veterans Affairs hospital said on Tuesday his attorney has filed a notice that he will sue the federal government.

Army veteran Juan Rivera, 55, claims he contracted during the procedure on or about May 19, 2008. Rivera said he had been tested twice and both times he was positive for the disease.

Rivera is married with five grown children. He served in the Army from 1976 to 1989 and now works as postal office transportation specialist.

Ira Leesfield, an attorney for Rivera, said the notice filed July 20 is necessary under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Rivera has to give the federal government six months before he files a federal lawsuit. Leesfield said the claim states Rivera will sue for $20 million in damages.

The notice said the incident was caused by "the carelessness and negligence of the VA in cleaning and maintaining their equipment, as well as failing to adopt and implement proper policies, protocols and procedures."

"I think what we are looking for is a change of attitude, a change of procedure, a change of commitment to the veterans," Leesfield said.

Leesfield said the VA has responded by asking for Rivera's medical records. A VA spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to telephone or e-mail messages seeking comment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has said that there is no way to prove that the positive tests for infectious diseases stem from exposure to improperly cleaned or erroneously rigged equipment for colonoscopies at facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Miami or while getting treatment at the ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta, Ga."

6 more cases of botched cancer treatment at Pa. VA

6 more cases of botched cancer treatment at Pa. VA

Six more cases have been found of cancer patients being given incorrect radiation doses at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia.

The errors happened in a common surgical procedure to treat prostate cancer.

That brings the total to 98 veterans who were given incorrect radiation doses over a six-year period at the hospital.

The program had treated 114 cancer patients before it was halted when the problem surfaced in 2008.

The cases involved brachytherapy, in which implanted radioactive metal seeds are used to kill cancer cells. Most veterans got far less than the prescribed dose while others received too much.

The newly reported cases have been forwarded to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from The Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com