WASHINGTON: A Louisiana firm said it will not accept medical waste from the late Ebola patient in Texas, even though it acknowledged the refuse is safe.
Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan was the first person diagnosed with Ebola outside Africa. Duncan was hospitalized September 28 and died of Ebola on Wednesday in Dallas.
The company, Chemical Waste Management, insisted that while its facility in the city of Lake Charles is "permitted by the state and federal government to accept waste of this type, and while accepting this waste poses no threat to the environment or human health, we do not want to make an already complicated situation, more complicated."
Authorities believe medical waste and hazardous waste incinerator ash -- the residue left by incineration -- is not capable of transmitting infectious disease, including Ebola.
President Barack Obama met Monday with members of his public health and national security team to receive an update on the response to the diagnosis of the second Ebola case in Dallas, Texas -- a nurse who cared for Duncan.
Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa since the start of the year, and is spread through close contact with bodily fluids.
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