Hospitals are Major Source of Toxic Pollutants
by Danielle Knight
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by Danielle Knight |
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(IPS) WASHINGTON --
Hospitals
in the United States are a leading source of certain toxic chemical emissions linked to contaminated food, say environmental groups and medical professionals.
A medical waste management survey of 50 major U.S. hospitals, conducted by a environmentalists and health care organizations, has found that many medical facilities are the source for dioxins and mercury emissions -- two known toxic chemicals. "The health care industry is making us sick," says Charlotte Brody, a registered nurse and coordinator of the coalition Health Care Without Harm. "The waste disposal practices and the use of certain materials in hospitals and other health care providers are damaging the health of our communities." That conclusion likely will fuel opposition to medical waste incineration in many parts of the developing world, where the practice is also being promoted despite local opposition, say activists.
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Recent studies
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that incineration of millions of pounds of hospital waste each year is a major source of the highly toxic contaminants. Incinerated medical waste is one of the leading sources of dioxins -- a known carcinogen -- and also is the fourth leading source of mercury emissions, according to the studies as analyzed by the coalition.
"We expect hospitals to keep us healthy, not to add to the risk of cancer and other diseases," says Ken Cook, president of the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, a non-profit research organization which is part of the coalition. People are mainly exposed to dioxins and mercury through food, according to Brody and Michael McCally, a medical doctor and professor of community medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "We are all being exposed to toxic chemicals food we eat," says McCally. "Rather than being a major source of the problem, our nation's hospitals should be advocates against toxic threats." Dioxins are produced when chlorine products -- such as bleach and some PVC plastic bags -- are burned. Once released into the air as invisible particles through incineration, the dioxins eventually settle in soil, water and on grass or crops. In turn, they are eaten by animals, such as cows, and are stored in animal fat. Next, they are passed on to humans through the food chain. Because of their ability to travel long distances in the air before falling to the earth and entering the food chain, dioxins have been found in wildlife worldwide -- even in remote arctic regions far from incinerators. A Consumer Reports laboratory study this month found dioxins in processed meat baby food products at levels 100 times higher than the government's current daily limit for this carcinogen. Children, and unborn infants, especially are vulnerable to dioxins because of its effect on human development and the endocrine system, say environmental and medical experts. In 1994, the EPA found that dioxins were carcinogenic and also can cause severe health disorders such as birth defects as well as reproductive and immune system disorders. Over 100 countries will meet at the end of June in Montreal, Canada to negotiate a treaty to eliminate or phase out 12 highly toxic chemicals -- including dioxins. The other medical incinerator emission, mercury -- used in thermometers and other medical equipment is also highly poisonous to the nervous and reproductive system. Approximately 10 percent of the nation's mercury pollution comes from the burning of medical waste, according to Health Care Without Harm's report. A 1997 EPA study estimated that 1.6 million pregnant women and women of childbearing age in the United States are potentially exposed each year to "unsafe levels" of mercury from fish alone, including canned tuna. While 80 percent of the 50 respondents to Health Care Without Harm's hospital survey say they have mercury reduction programs, Brody says they are not effective. "Of the hospitals that have mercury reduction programs, 37 percent of the hospitals still buy patient thermometers that contain mercury and nearly half buy mercury blood pressure devices," says the report. Only 20 percent of the survey respondents have programs to reduce purchases of PVC plastic, an important source of chlorine for the creation of dioxins in incinerators. "Yet, even these few PVC reduction initiatives do not seem particularly effective," says the report. "Only six percent of hospitals surveyed use PVC free bags." The main problem, says the report, is that hospitals burn more waste than they need to. About 40 percent of the respondents continue to incinerate medical waste that should be treated by safer methods -- such as microwave techniques and autoclaves -- which are high tech dishwashers, says Brody. John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland for example, burns all of their waste -- from recyclables like newspapers to medical waste like thermometers. Like other hospitals, the incinerator at Hopkins is located in a poor Black community where there is less political opposition, adds Brody. The report urges hospitals to develop programs to separate dioxins and mercury containing waste from the waste that will be incinerated. It also urges hospitals to reduce the amount of waste through developing recycling programs and packaging reduction programs. Beth Israel Medical Center in New York dramatically reduced its "red bag" waste -- or contaminated waste that by law has to be incinerated -- through educating health professionals at the hospital to better separate the contaminated waste from non- contaminated waste. "We now save about $600,000 per year on medical waste disposal costs as a result of this program," says Kim Knowlton at Beth Israel.
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While hospital
management in the United States become more aware of the health dangers of medical waste incineration, McCally warns that incineration technology is being promoted in developing countries that have less environmental regulations.
Opposition has spread in parts of the developing world, where the World Bank has promoted medical waste incinerators. In India, for example, the lending agency has sought to protect rag-pickers and make it impossible for people to reuse contaminated needles and medical equipment. Similarly, says Brody, "years ago when I worked as a nurse I thought the best way to protect the public from contaminated waste was incineration." Under pressure from health and environmental groups here and in developing countries, the Bank last year suspended a number of hazardous waste projects and assembled a task force to study the technology.
Albion Monitor June 16, 1998 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor)
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