TALBOT COUNTY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO OPEN BURNING
OF MEDICAL RELATED WASTE

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Brian Endzel, 50, of 29362 Howell Point Road, Trappe, Maryland has pled guilty to illegally causing an open fire and burning boxes containing medical related waste. The Honorable William H. Atkins, III, Judge of the District Court of Maryland for Talbot County, sentenced Endzel to six months in jail and suspended the sentence in favor of eighteen months of probation. Endzel was also ordered to complete one hundred hours of community work service. Judge Adkins also imposed a fine of $2,500 of which he ordered the Defendant to pay $1,000 to the Clear Air Fund within ninety days. The balance was suspended. The maximum penalty for the offense, which is a misdemeanor, is up to one year in jail and a $25,000 fine.

The conviction results from Endzel illegally burning material, including medically related waste at 29362 Howell Point Road, Trappe, Maryland. The medical related waste consisted of gauze bandages, apparently soaked with urine or blood, operating gowns, plastic gloves, plastic syringes, and varies medicine bottles. The waste was improperly removed by Endzel from an outpatient surgery center in Easton, where Endzel worked as a maintenance man.

On June 21, 2005, firemen from the Trappe Volunteer Fire Company responded to a 911 call of an open burning at the Defendant’s residence. Upon contacting Endzel, who was at the scene of the fire, and learning that he did not have an open burning permit, the Fire Department took action to extinguish the fire. Sanitarians from the Talbot County Health Department, Office of Environmental Health, were notified and came to the scene and discovered that the fire included medically related waste. Any open burning can only be done after first obtaining a permit from the local health department. Health Departments will not issue permits to burn material brought from another location, or for medically related waste.

The conviction follows an investigation conducted by the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland State Police with the assistance of the Talbot County Health Department, Office of Environmental Health, and the Trappe Volunteer Fire Company.