Health Care Without Harm 2000-2001 Project Highlights

Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of over 300 organizations in 27 countries dedicated to eliminating environmental pollution from health care. Members include more than 80 hospitals, the American Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and others.

The Boston Project of Health Care Without Harm has made vast inroads toward the goal of reducing toxics waste and use in health care facilities.

Highlights of the last year include:

• Worked with the Lawrence Environmental Justice Council to close the Stericycle medical waste incinerator located in Lawrence, MA on November 16, 2000. The incinerator was the largest one in New England and was located in a low-income neighborhood.
• Drafted an ordinance to ban the sale of mercury fever thermometers in the city of Boston, MA. Boston City Council unanimously passed the ordinance on November 16, 2000.
• Worked in partnership with the Boston Public Health Commission to get funding for and plan a citywide mercury thermometer exchange program. The Boston Public Health Commission received a grant for $20,000 for their efforts. The exchange is planned for this coming fall.
• Assisted in creating a timeline for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s mercury thermometer round up. Participated in the actual round up on October 26, 2000.
• Assisted with mercury thermometer ordinances and Board of Health declarations in the municipalities of Worcester, Haverhill, Natick, and Cambridge, Massachusetts as well as Freeport, Maine.
• Recruited Mount Auburn Hospital and the Cambridge Health Alliance of Cambridge, MA to sign the Making Medicine Mercury Free Pledge.
• Assisted our Maine partner, Natural Resources Council of Maine, along with the Maine Hospital Association and Maine DEP, to sign an historic first in the nation memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will reduce waste, phase out mercury and PVC plastic in 36 Maine hospitals.
• Assisted Cambridge Health Alliance in planning and holding a city-wide mercury fever thermometer round up.
• Organized a conference at Harvard School of Public health titled, ‘Who Owns Science?’ The conference was in response to Bill Moyers’ special report ‘Trade Secrets’ and had an audience of more than 200 people.
• Recruited vendors of environmentally preferable products to attend and display at the CleanMed 2001 conference.
• Testified to the Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture and the Health Care Committee on behalf of two House Bills on mercury pollution prevention. Also met privately with Senator Pacheco, Chair of the Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture, about the future of House Bill 2217.
• Helped plan the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s (BIDMC) annual ‘Healthy Work, Healthy Home’ forum. The BIDMC forum focused on the issue of paper recycling and included a thermometer and battery exchange.
• Created and mailed outreach materials to staff in area Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) about the harmful impacts from using di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate and PVC in the NICU. Met with nurses to create a plan to change purchasing practices for the NICU.

For more information about the Health Care Without Harm Boston Project, contact Bill Ravanesi MA MPH at (617) 524-2366 or ravanesi@attbi.com, or the national office at the Health Care Without Harm web site.