Hospitals Going Green
As a result of my Mom's recent battle with cancer, I've spent considerable time in hospitals contemplating many things, including how hospitals deals with waste, toxins and recycling. Although many hospitals have a long way to go, many are already committed to green business practices. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC) joined forces to bring green business practices to the healthcare industry. According to Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair of USGBC, "Patients in green hospitals have greater emotional well-being, require less pain medication and other drugs, and have shorter hospital stays." Such findings are not surprising.
In September, USGBC and GGHC agreed to educational programs and other initiatives to promote the greening of health care systems. This is a very important and strategic step in addressing the issues of waste, recycling and more within the industry. By using natural cleaning products, plants that improve air quality, solar energy, natural light as much as possible, recycling, and reducing the amount of toxic wastes, green hospitals can make a significant impact. Clearly, green hospitals are good for the community, medical personnel, patients and visitors.
To identify the top environmentally friendly hospitals, The Green Guide followed the criteria of USGBC's LEED standards, The Green Guide for Health Care, and Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E). Indeed, any and all hospitals should be moving towards the following initiatives to better steward the earth's resources, while promoting better health for all:
1- Location: Was the hospital near or accessible to alternative transportation, utilizing storm water management, sited for urban redevelopment, and reducing its eco-footprint?
2- Water Reduction and Efficiency: Does the hospital use plants and landscaping in an ecologically friendly manner? Does it reduce water usage?
3- Air and Energy Pollution: How is the hospital reducing chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), utilizing renewable energy, reducing energy consumption, and exercising green power and reducing ozone?
4- Resources and Materials: Are recycled building materials, resources, local materials and/or certified wood used in the construction of the hospital?
5- Indoor Environmental Quality: How is the hospital improving its indoor air ventilation? Are they increasing ventilation and incorporating eco-friendly paints, adhesives and materials to avoid toxic fumes of toluene, formaldehyde and other carcinogenic compounds? Are they using any plants and natural lighting?
6- Organic, Healthy Hospital Food: Are fresh, local and organic foods served in the cafeteria and for the patients?
7- Green Education: Is there any instruction for employees regarding environmental best practices, including waste reduction, toxics reduction and recycling?
8- Procurement: Is the hospital using recycled paper, energy efficient equipment, water-efficient laundering, and/or other green products?
9- Contaminants: How is the company reducing toxins, such as mercury and PVC (both can leak toxic plasticizers into fluids of IV drip bags and tubing)?
10- Green and Natural Cleaning Products: Is the hospital using natural cleaning products, free of hazardous chemicals?
11- Waste reduction: Is the hospital segregating medical waste and reducing, re-using and recycling everything else like general waste, furniture, and equipment?
12- Healing Gardens: Is there a garden where patients, employees and visitors can sit and enjoy fresh air and the beauty of nature? Are native plants used to reduce water usage and the use of pesticides?
Winners for The Green Guide's Top 10 Green Hospitals at a Glance:
• Boulder Community Hospital Foothills Campus (Boulder, CO)
• Bronson Methodist Hospital (Kalamazoo, MI)
• Kaiser Permanente (headquarters in Oakland, CA)
• Laguna Honda Replacement Hospital and Rehabilitation Center (San Francisco, CA)
• Legacy Health System Salmon Creek Hospital (Vancouver, WA)
• Mount Sinai Medical Center's Lauder Center for Maternity Care (New York, NY)
• Patrick H. Dollard Discovery Health Center (Harris, NY)
• Providence Newberg Hospital (Newberg, OR)
• Sarkis Gabrellian Women's and Children’s Pavilion at Hackensack University Medical Center (Hackensack, NJ)
• Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute (Atlanta, GA)
RUNNERS UP
For waste reduction, recycling and re-use:
• Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, NH)
• Sparrow Health System (Lansing, MI)
• University of Michigan Hospital and Health Centers (Ann Arbor, MI)
For green building:
• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Concord Hospital (Concord, NH)
• Mercy Suburban Hospital (Norristown, PA)
For fresh, local and organic hospital food:
• St. Luke's Hospital (Duluth, MN)
• Good Shepherd Health Care System (Hermiston, OR)
• Allen Memorial Hospital (Waterloo, IA)
• Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC)
• Fletcher Allen Medical Center (Burlington, VT)
It's great to see so many hospitals consider the well-being of a patient and how to to steward the earth. Indeed, I look forward to the time when green hospitals are not an exception, but the rule.
How Safe is Bottled Water?
We have all been tricked (brainwashed) into believing bottled water is more pure and fresh than tap water; a brilliant yet deceptive tactic of corporations to fatten their profits. Streams, fountains, and other "fresh" landscapes on their labels further convince us that the water is really pure. In 1999 the NRDC tested 1000 bottles of 103 brands of water (most recent major report of water bottle safety) and the organization discovered that:
- At least one of the samples of 1/3 of the brands contained chemical or bacterial toxins, including carcinogens exceeding state and industry standards.
- Samples of two brands were contaminated with phthalates, exceeding the EPA standard for tap water!
So what should we do? We recommend the following:
- Get a water-quality or consumer-confidence report from your local water utility. If you have well water, get it tested every year. You can also call the EPA's toll-free Drinking Water Hotline at 800.426.4791. or visit the website for the Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water at www.safe-drinking-water.org.
- Reconsider drinking from the office watercooler. First, it is rarely, if ever, cleaned. Second, they are made of polycarbonate and have the nasty potential to leak bisphenol (BPA), a chemical that causes neurological and other problems. Recent research linked the BPA to a variety of disorders, including breast cancer and obesity, and one disturbing 2007 study, published in the journal PLoS Genetics, found that BPA exposure can cross generations.
- Get a reusable stainless steel container and fill it up with your own tap or filtered water. Check out Klean Kanteen, SIGG, Greenfeet, and New Wave Enviro.
- Never drink bottled water exposed to hot temperatures.
- Buy only bottled water when necessary and make sure it has the NSF logo on it.
Happy drinking fresh water, right from your tap!
Go Green on Little Things: Health & Beauty
Go Green on the Little Things is a 7 part series, providing various tidbits and advice about green living and choices for the following: home living, office spaces, school, shopping, health and beauty, money and finance, and buildings.
Today, we are finishing up our 7 part series with Go Green on the Little Things: Health and Beauty. Looking good on you does not necessarily mean your look is good for the environment. Did you know that consumers use about 200 pounds of plastic a year and that 60 pounds of it is just packaging that we discard? The health and beauty industry is a whopping $160 billion dollar a year industry and not very keen on caring for the planet in their big packages and unnatural products or toxins they use. Let's take a look at how you can green your planet in the area of health and fitness with the following steps:
- Showering: Drop your showers to once a day instead of two and save about 200 gallons of water, or 30,000+ gallons a year.
- Exercise Outside: Leave the electrical elliptical and treadmill and run outside when you can.
- Swimming: Swim in saltwater (saline) or solar-ionized pools instead of chlorinated ones; healthier choices for your skin, eyes, hair, and lungs, as well as the environment.
- Baby Oil: Instead of baby oil (which is made from petroleum), use oils produced from the seeds of nuts and fruits.
- Shampoo and Conditioner: Use the 2-in-1 and save on plastic, time, water and money.
- Deodorant: Avoid anti-perspirants as they use aluminum salts to seal your pores, a toxin to the body and costly ingredient to mine (dig, unearth!).
- Eyeliner: Use eyeliner contained within wood chips versus encased in plastic.
- Foundation: Use foundation in recyclable glass containers.
- Lipstick: Make sure you lipstick made from plants instead of from paraffin waxes, synthetic oils and toxic coal tar dyes.
- Hair Dye: Choose semi- or demi-permanent dyes made from plants versus synthetic dyes.
- Mascara: Choose mascara made from plants and minerals versus petroleum.
- Perfumes/Colognes: Switch to natural botanical perfumes and colognes. Most perfumes and colognes are derived from petroleum.
- Razors: Buy recyclable razors, saving on packaging and energy.
- Soap: Forget the liquid soap as the packaging is expensive and wasteful; stick with bars of soap.
- Sponges: It's time for us to return to the good old reusable hand cloth, saving money on the packaging and production of the synthetic nylon sponge.
Embracing these small steps alone will make a mighty difference, one person at a time.
Danger: Mercury in Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulbs
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and big corporations, like Walmart, are aggressively promoting compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs because: 1) a 20-watt CFL provides as much light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb, 3) they are 10 times more expensive than incandescent light bulbs, and 4) they will make a lot of money for corporations and shareholders.
The downfall of CFL's include: the cost, the toxic amounts of mercury, and the lack of proper recycling programs for this toxic product. In addition, if you break a CFL, you will be required to pay thousands of dollars for a hazardous clean up crew because mercury is a potent neurotoxin. Indeed, it is a very toxic chemical, for anyone who gets in contact and breathes the vapor, but even more so for children and babies in the womb. In Britain, the UK EPA urges its citizens to vacate a room for fifteen minutes because of the dangers of mercury.
So what are the dangers of mercury? After only one large breath of mercury vapor, the lungs become the main target of mercury poisoning. Other potential symptoms include: headache, cough, kidney damage, bronchitis, metallic taste, chills, vomiting, mouth sores, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, shortness of breath, swollen gums, weakness, confusion, chest tightness, and pneumonia. In light of these awful health dangers, can you believe the packages don't even mention these hazards?
Corporations must be held accountable for the proper disposal of these toxic CFL's. Why should consumers be required to pay for the hazardous clean up a product made with mercury? Something is seriously wrong here. The least GE and other manufacturers should do is to find a cost effective, safe, and easy way to dispose of their product. Although the EPA is actively encouraging retailers to step up and get involved in the proper recycling of CFL's, only IKEA has such a recycling program in place. Indeed, it is the moral responsibility of retailers of CFL's to provide proper handling and recycling of such toxic materials.
NPR's All Things Considered "CFL Bulbs Have One Hitch: Toxic Mercury" podcast
Cloned Animals: Healthy for Consumption?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently declared that cloned animals and their offspring, such as cows, goats, and pigs, are safe to enter into the food supply chain. In addition, the FDA has not made such labeling of products mandatory, even though it has been documented that cloned animals have a greater tendency of birth defects. Therefore, I can't help to wonder, along with immediate health implications, if the consumption of byproducts from cloned animals could result in birth defects and diseases in humans? I'm just not convinced that such byproducts from cloned animals are healthy. How can anyone be sure that eating meat and milk from cloned animals are safe at this point? I'll choose only organic foods from now on.
Links:
NPR podcast: FDA Finds Meat, Milk from Clones Safe to Eat
NPR podcast: How Safe is Cloned Meat
US Food and Administration: CVM and Animal Cloning