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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...afd680bf40.html

Stan Maddux Times Correspondent
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MICHIGAN CITY | Police are looking into the illegal dumping of nearly two dozen boxes of used at-home kidney dialysis equipment and two-liter bags of urine.

Also in the boxes were used syringes and smaller amounts of blood.

''There was a little bit of everything,'' said Jeff Hamilton, director of the LaPorte County Hazardous Materials Department.

The discovery was made Tuesday afternoon at a recycling drop-off site near Marquette Mall off U.S 20.

Twenty-three cardboard boxes containing mostly used tubes still attached to intravenous bags of urine produced from dialysis were on the ground next to the recycling bin and each of the boxes contained several used dialysis kits, said Hamilton.

With help from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the area was secured and the items safely removed and placed in storage until Monday when a firm specializing in safe disposal of medical waste is scheduled to pick them up, said Hamilton.

The recycling drop off bin is owned by the LaPorte County Solid Waste District, which recently began using surveillance to try and curb a problem with large amounts of various trash being regularly dumped at the site.

Alicia Ebaugh, education and public outreach coordinator for the LCSWD, said the video was turned over to police, who revealed only the case is being investigated.

''We have a pretty good idea who it is,'' said Hamilton, who said the boxes had post marks that indicate delivery by UPS to a specific address.

Hamilton said the fear with such reckless disposal is someone through contact developing hepatitis or some other disease that might be present in the waste.

Lisa Bryan, a registered nurse with Vitas Hospice in Portage, said it takes about six hours of dialysis to fill up one two-liter IV bag and the urine can simply be drained into a toilet.

Ebaugh said the used tubes and other dialysis materials can be placed into the regular trash as long as those items are double bagged in plastic.

She said the recycling drop-off area will continue to be monitored and IDEM will seek to recover the cost for the clean up.

''Hopefully, it will never happen again,'' Ebaugh said.