An emergency preparedness group is charging the federal government with lowering safety standards for disposing of Ebola waste in Dallas.



The Healthcare Coalition for Emergency Preparedness (HCEP) issued a statement Friday blasting anticipated federal guidance to allow the Dallas hospital to transport and dispose of the waste.





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The guidance is expected to overcome a regulatory conflict that orders hospitals to discard Ebola waste like any other biohazard but effectively prevents waste management companies from transporting the material.HCEP Executive Director Darrell Henry said that in order to minimize risk, the Dallas hospital should have its own waste sterilizer on site or transport the Ebola patient to a facility that does."There is no reason for [the Department of Transportation] to lower safety standards when there are affordable, existing technologies commonly used today that allow hospitals to properly and safely treat substances infected with Ebola on-site," Henry said in a statement."Appropriately disinfecting waste on-site instead of trucking it across the city will help promote confidence in our health system and government agencies' ability to protect the public."Waste management is an enormous challenge in caring for Ebola patients, who generate significant volumes of bodily fluid that are active with the virus.The Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian, is not the first medical facility to find itself caught in that regulatory conflict.Doctors at Emory University Hospital initially stored former patients' Ebola waste in large rubber bins from Home Depot before an agreement could be reached about disposal, according to reports.A person aware of negotiations with Texas Health Presbyterian said the hospital apparently turned down a sterilizer offered by Bryan Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis, Ala. The source did not know the reason for the decision.The Department of Transportation guidelines are reportedly set to come out Friday afternoon.