In a letter last week, the AAMC commended the Environmental Protection Agency for its proposed rule to provide academic organizations with alternative, performance-based standards for the management of hazardous wastes. The rule would allow universities, medical schools and other degree-granting academic organizations to adopt the standards voluntarily as an alternative to current federal hazardous waste regulations that are crafted to deal with industrial wastes. The proposed rule acknowledges that hospital laboratories typically differ from academic labs in the nature and quantity of wastes produced and should not be eligible for the EPA's alternative standards. In its comment letter, the AAMC agreed with the EPA's assertion that hospital labs perform a high volume of clinical service s and tests and are appropriately subject to other federal and state regulation. However, the AAMC argued that the EPA should allow universities and medical schools the discretion to include in their waste management plans those faculty research labs that are located in affiliated hospitals, when such inclusion is reasonable. For more information, please visit http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/research/corres/2006/092006.pdf .