A Pennsylvania dentist has been charged by the New Jersey authorities for unlawfully dumping medical waste at a popular beach area, which led to the closure of the beach during peak vacation time. Attorney General Anne Milgram said at a news conference that on Aug. 22, Thomas McFarland, 59, took his motorboat to Townsend Inlet near Avalon and dumped a bag full of some 300 dental-type needles, along with 180 cotton swabs and other materials from his Wynnewood, Pa., medical office.

The police affidavits say McFarland admitted tossing the material from his boat but his motive has not been revealed. McFarland has been charged with unlawfully discharging a pollutant and unlawful disposal of regulated medical waste and each charge carries a maximum prison term of five years. If he is convicted on both counts the fine could reach a total of $125,000.

McFarland, represented by local attorney Joseph Rodgers and Milgram, said a complaint was served on his lawyer on Friday. Though authorities know where McFarland is, but Milgram said they would not disclose his location.

Avalon is an upscale resort town about 25 miles south of Atlantic City which was recently named by National Geographic Adventure magazine as one of the nation's 10 best places to live, work and play. When needles and other medical materials began washing up on August 22 on the northernmost beaches of Avalon, the beach had to be closed down for five days.

"Many people at the Jersey Shore could not enjoy one of the state's most precious natural resources, the ocean," Milgram said.

McFarland owns a summer home across the bridge from Avalon while his dental practice is at his residence on the 300 block of Penn Road in the Lower Merion neighborhood.

Milgram said the dentist confessed to Avalon police as an "intensive investigation" was narrowing, though the wrapper markings for a dental-drill bit as well as the labels on the needles pointed investigators toward McFarland even before he turned himself in, Milgram added.

This was the most serious incident with more than 200 syringes picked up, since the late 1980s, when waste was washing ashore which prompted a ban on trash dumping off the New Jersey coast. This incident though was not related to the syringes and debris found on beaches in seven other Shore towns, including Atlantic City, Ocean City and Brigantine said Milgram.

McFarland has been licensed as a dentist in Pennsylvania since 1977 and his neighbors were shocked by the news.

Avalon police chief David Dean said, "Early on, we realized this incident was unique and that this was intentional and done nearby."

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