Four area hospitals received recognition Tuesday from the Maryland chapter of Hospitals for a Healthy Environment for recent improvements in reducing hazardous and medical waste, as well as efforts to eliminate the dangerous toxin mercury from their buildings.
The National Naval Medical Center and Calvert Memorial Hospital received H2E partner honors for their recycling, recovery and policy initiatives. Calvert, Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base and Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park won H2E?s “Making Medicine Mercury Free” awards.
“We?re proud of the recognition, and this will focus more and more attention on eliminating mercury and other hazardous materials,” said Maryland Hospital Association President Cal Pierson.”One of my hopes is that all hospitals will begin to do everything they can to become good community citizens.”
Speakers at the Harbor Hospital ceremony in South Baltimore highlighted the physicians? creed of “never do any harm” and the urgent need for hospitals to create a safe environment for patients and significantly reduce the pollutants put into their surroundings.
Mercury, which is found in thermometers, thermostats, blood-pressure gauges and elsewhere, and pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy drugs, medical waste, electronic equipment and other hazardous materials ? when not disposed of properly ? are each potential threats to public health.
“Hospitals have high turnover rates, which is why we need to see policy changes,” H2E Maryland Coordinator Cecilla DeLoach told the health care administrators and managers in attendance. “When people move to another institution, we want those reforms you made to stay behind.”
MD H2E is a joint project between the national organization Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, the Maryland Hospital Association, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Nurses Association. The nonprofit provides technical assistance to health care facilities and hospitals in an effort to reduce harmful waste and toxins.
“It?s ironic,” said Richard Zdanis, MD H2E?s program director, “that hospitals have actually been some of the worst institutions for making people sick.”
“Pollution prevention is a critical step in achieving a sustainable society,” said John R. Pomponio, a regional director of environmental assessment and innovation with the EPA. “I think the message is we need to support and continue these exciting reforms. My daughter Amber has worked at Johns Hopkins University and Union Memorial Hospital, and I worry about what she is being exposed to every day.”
