Twenty years ago, the state of New Jersey took a huge hit to its tourism business when medical waste started washing ashore on its beaches. By the estimates of its own government, it took years for the state to recover from the justifiably bad PR it received because of what was happening. Now, history is repeating itself, and medical waste is once again washing ashore in towns in Cape May County, New Jersey: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080830_S__Jersey_towns_cope_with_more_beach_closures.html. I got to see this first hand yesterday--I was IN Ocean City, NJ, when the beaches there were closed.
What I want to know is, why does this only happen in the Garden State? You never hear about this happening in Florida, or Georgia, or the Carolinas, Maryland, etc. In fact, you never hear about it occurring anywhere but here. What is so wonderfully unique about this state that medical waste is constantly being dumped off its shores?
So far, with the recently concluded Democratic National Convention, the nomination by John McCain of Sarah Palin as his lieutenant governor and Tropical Storm/Hurricane Gustav rampaging through the Carribean, this story hasn't received the play it may otherwise have received. That's a lucky break for the New Jersey tourism industry............
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