by Michael Hone
U.S. Law allows export of medical waste says Pitts
RECIFE, Pernambuco – U.S. law allows the exportation of used material—including material used in hospitals, according to the United States Consul, Usha Pitts, on Thursday afternoon speaking at the consulate in the Northeastern Brazilian city of Recife. The consul met with the FBI attache, Richard Cavalieri, at the consulate to discuss the seizure of medical waste shipped from Charleston, SC to the Port of Suape in Pernambuco.
“It's premature to talk about the legality of the case and to say if there was some failure of the U.S. government. In this particular case, we are still investigating irregularities,” said the consul. The deadlock occurs, she said, because Brazilian law prevents the importation of such material.
The issue will only be resolved when the report of the Institute of Criminology (IC) is released. So far, they have not found any biological material or human fluids such as blood in the sample materials collected. This confirmation was given by Richard Cavalieri, FBI attache in Brazil who inspected the samples Thursday morning. According to him, the contents of the shipping containers seized in Suape still have not been analyzed by the IC.
Cavalieri went on to say that the identity of the company that shipped the material is still not known but he confirmed that the shipment was from Charleston, South Carolina.
The American delegation does not have time to stay in Recife pending the outcome of the investigation. “We were called by the Consulate, following a request from the government of Pernambuco and the Federal Police, to give special support to investigators. We are forwarding all requests for facts that need to be established in the U.S. and even if we leave we will continue to collaboration in Recife with investigations through our regional offices in Brazil,” said the FBI attache.
The 60 samples now being analyzed by the IC were collected from a driver in Pariba, a hospital in Goias, a store in downtown Santa Cruz do Capibaribe and a hotel in Timbauba.
In Brazil, federal police began an investigation into the medical waste after seizing two containers of the hazardous medical waste at the port of Suape in Pernambuco last week. The importing company made false declarations regarding the contents of the containers.
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Brazilian online news source for this article: O Globo
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