Thursday, October 23, 2008

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH GROUP CALLS ON RP TO LEAD MERCURY PHASE-OUT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

October 23, 2008

Contact:
Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, 0918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Faye Ferrer, Program Officer for Mercury, 0920 9327151, faye@hcwh.org
Josh Karliner, International Team Coordinator, josh@hcwh.org

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH GROUP CALLS ON RP TO LEAD MERCURY PHASE-OUT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia today launches “End of an Era,” a report documenting the US healthcare sector’s success at replacing the “acutely toxic and globally polluting” mercury blood pressure measuring devices (sphygmomanometers) with alternatives and encourages the Philippines to lead the Southeast Asian region in the global mercury phase-out.

“Philippines is leading the way for its Southeast Asian neighbors and other developing countries with the recent signing of the Department of Health (DoH) Administrative Order mandating the phase-out of mercury-containing devices in all Philippine health care facilities by 2010,” said Josh Karliner, International Team Coordinator of HCWH and a co-author of the report.

The report released in September is intended for Europe audience to push for the immediate phase-out of mercury sphygmomanometers but is also relevant for the rest of the world US and Europe have both phased-out mercury thermometers but the report shows that US is well out in front of Europe when it comes to mercury column sphygmomanometers—the largest reservoir of mercury in health care. The European Union scientific committee is set to assess the accuracy of alternative devices this Fall.

“Everywhere around the world, people are recognizing the urgent need to phase-out mercury. The risk to people, wildlife and the environment is an acknowledged fact. The Philippines may very well take precedent in the US’s,” said Faye Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Program Coordinator for Mercury.

Karliner added that the US health care sector has proven that the mercury blood pressure measurement is accurate and safe for human health and the environment.

“Considering that alternatives give the same result minus the hazards, it is affordable even in Philippine setting,” Ferrer pointed out.

Deploying a series of letters from leading US health care systems, the report documents how several major US health providers have completely phased-out mercury-based sphygmomanometers and have had little, if any problem with the alternatives-- digital and aneroid blood pressure cuffs.

Once ubiquitous in the US health care setting, today mercury is increasingly hard to find in US hospitals. The report notes that similar change is also taking place in other parts of the world—from Argentina to South Africa.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, threatening the health of patients and health care workers alike. When released into the environment, this hazardous chemical also bio accumulates in fish all around the world, undermining global public health.

The report is available at:
http://www.noharm.org/details.cfm?type=document&id=2030

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org. (30)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

INTERNATIONAL GROUP WARNS OF THE DANGERS OF MERCURY TO HOSPITALS

October 15, 2008

Contact:

Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, 0918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org

Faye Ferrer, Program Officer for Mercury, 0920 9327151, faye@hcwh.org

INTERNATIONAL GROUP WARNS OF THE DANGERS OF MERCURY TO HOSPITALS

Baguio City – Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia in a forum on the gradual phase-out of mercury in all Philippine health care facilities and institutions talks of the merits of the phase-out emphasizing why this should be a priority program in all hospitals.

“On top of the Administrative Order, which mandates all hospitals to immediately discontinue the distribution of mercury thermometers in the patients’ admission/discharge kits, is the danger that all mercury-containing devices pose to patients as well as to the nurses, doctors and other health workers,” said Faye Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Program Office for Mercury.

AO 2008-0021 signed last August by the Department of Health (DoH) will require all hospitals to follow the guideline for the gradual phase-out of mercury in two years. Another salient provision is the requirement to all new health care facilities applying for a license to operate to submit an inventory of all mercury-containing devices that will be used in their facilities and a corresponding mercury elimination program.

“Occupational hazard, danger to people, wildlife and the environment are substantial reasons to phase-out mercury,” Ferrer pointed out.

The forum organized by HCWH-SEA, DoH-Cordillera Administrative Region and St. Louis University (SLU) Hospital of the Sacred Heart in Baguio aims to gather the support of all of the region’s hospital in this phase-out.

According to Malou Jacinto, Administrator of SLU Hospital of the Sacred Heart, “shift to mercury alternative is our only solution considering the cost of cleaning up mercury spills in hospitals and the insurmountable diseases it poses to anyone who enters hospital facilities or anyone who inhales air with mercury.”

Mercury inhaled as vapor and absorbed through the lungs may cause tremors, emotional changes (mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness), insomnia, neuromuscular changes (weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching), headaches, disturbances in sensations, changes in nerve responses, performance deficits on tests of cognitive function. Higher exposure may cause kidney defects, respiratory failure and death. [1]

Ferrer pointed out that the shift to mercury alternatives is “doable, affordable and is economically-feasible.” She cited that even before the signing of the AO, more than fifty hospitals in the Philippines have either phased-out or is in the process of phasing-out mercury. First of these hospitals is the Philippine Heart Center in Metro Manila and SLU Hospital of the Sacred Heart in Baguio City.

“This for us is the true essence of providing health care—a health care that is safe to the people and less toxic to the environment,” she added.

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org. (30)



[1] Accessed on August 6, 2008 from http://www.epa.gov/mercury/effects.htm#content

Friday, October 10, 2008

Civil society groups urge Congress to adopt people's alternative budget proposal

October 10, 2008

Refer to : Prof. Leonor Briones

Contact Nos. : 09175359884

Civil society groups urge Congress to adopt people's alternative budget proposal

"Protect the poor from the economic slowdown." This is the call of orange-clad members of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) members as they trooped to the House of Representatives Session Hall Lobby holding orange umbrellas as symbols of protection for millions of poor Filipinos.

Members of the ABI campaign, which is globally recognized as one of the best practices in budget advocacy, attended the last day of Congress' plenary sessions on the 2009 budget to urge the Representatives to adopt the alternative budget proposals formulated by civil society groups and their partner legislators.

"We challenge Congress to scrutinize the executive budget and adjust it to account for the emerging worse scenarios for the rest of the year and for 2009," said Prof. Leonor Briones, lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines which organized the ABI. "This entails prioritizing essential social programs that will protect the poor, and spur the domestic economy, which are what the civil society's alternative budget proposal enshrines," the former national treasurer added.

Briones explained that millions of Filipinos are in grave danger of being hit by the economic storm because of overly optimistic assumptions of the executive's budget proposal. "The President's budget's macroeconomic assumptions reveal that growth projections are not attainable given the performance of the economy this year and the recent meltdown of the US financial market and its impending impact on the global economy," Briones explained

The alternative budget proposal for the 2009 national budget includes P43 billion increases in the allocations for basic and higher education, health, agriculture and environment. The group also identified the alternative sources of funding for the increases in the budget for social development which have no specific provisions and are subject to the discretion of one person and abuse.

"We challenged our Congressmen, as representatives of the people, to step up to identify and bravely cut unnecessary, wasteful and frivolous spending," Rene Raya of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) said. "The government needs to make adjustments in the proposed expenditure program to ensure that the budget will serve its development objectives and avoid incurring unmanageable budget deficit and a fiscal crisis" Raya added.

The group also called for the full release of approved budget increases for health, education, environment and agriculture. The ABI campaign during the previous years resulted to P5.2 billion increases in the budget for social development in the 2007 budget and P6.3 billion increases in the allocation for health, education, agriculture and environment in the 2008 budget.

"The alternative budget proposals, crafted by civil society groups and partner legislators, are the people's budget because it puts social development at top priority," said Thea Soriano, national coordinator of Education Network (E-Net). "Congress should be the people's allies in demanding for the full release of funds for people's welfare such as the funds for unpaid teachers' benefits of which only P77 million out of the P548 million allocations has been released; community based forest management; and autoclaves for hospitals of the Department of Health," Soriano said.

"Congress should formulate a national budget that would protect the people amidst a slackening economy, a rapidly increasing cost of living and a burgeoning global financial crisis," Briones said. "It is the duty of people's representatives to ensure that public money which came from the common people who work hard every day for their families to survive and whose sacrifices keep the nation alive are used to protect the welfare of the citizens themselves, because their welfare is the nation's security," Briones added.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Forum on the Gradual Phase-out of Mercury

MEDIA ADVISORY

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) –Southeast Asia

and BAN Toxics

invite you to a

Forum on the Gradual Phase-out of Mercury in all Philippine Health Care Facilities & Institutions

October 15 (Wednesday), 8:00 AM

Conference Basement Annex 3

SLU Hospital of Sacred Heart

___________________________

Forum on the Dangers of Mercury in Schools

October 15 (Wednesday), 1:00 PM

Rm 308, Rizal Building, St. Louis University

For details and attendance confirmation, please contact Sonia G. Astudillo at 0918-9182369.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Groups woo lawmakers with flowers, ask to strike out incinerator loan payment in 2009 budget

October 8, 2008

Groups woo lawmakers with flowers, ask to strike out

incinerator loan payment in 2009 budget


Environmentalists and anti-debt advocates trooped today to the House of Representatives to ask lawmakers to strike out in the proposed national budget the payment for what they call an illegitimate debt to Austria involving the Department of Health’s purchase of twenty-six medical waste incinerators in 1997.

Activists from the Eco Waste Coalition, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace-Southeast Asia and Health Care Without Harm donned in gasmasks gave flowers to lawmakers urging them to sign the parliamentarians’ petition launched by Representatives Edcel Lagman and Risa Hontiveros-Baracquel asking Austria to cancel the same loan.

Among those who expressed their support and signed the petition were Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, Iloilo Rep. Janeth Garin, Agusan Del Norte Rep. Edelmiro Amante, Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong, YACAP Party-list Carol Lopez, Bulacan Rep. Pedro Pancho, Bohol Rep. Edgar Chato, Zamboanga Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco and Butil Party-list Rep. Leonila Chavez.

The 26 medical waste incinerators which comprised the loan were distributed to DOH-controlled hospitals. But following concerns regarding their safety, emission tests were conducted by the DOH and the World Health Organization (WHO). The result of the those tests showed that the incinerators had extremely high emissions, with one incinerator exceeding the limit set by the Philippine Clean Air Act for dioxins and furans more than eight hundred times. This prompted the DOH to decommission the incinerators in order to comply with the Clean Air Act.

According to Merci Ferrer of Health Care Without Harm, “We ask our congressmen to again withhold payment of the loan in the 2009 national budget, just as it did previously in the 2008 budget. And we hope this time the President can be prevailed upon not to veto it.”

The original cost of the total incinerator project, which Greenpeace branded as a case of toxic technology transfer, was P 503, 647, 200. For 2009, data submitted by the Department of Budget and Management show that the principal and interest payments for next year would amount to US $2.2 M.

In the General Appropriations Act of 2008 approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Austrian loan was included in the list of those loans "challenged as fraudulent, wasteful, and/or useless" and whose interest payments were put on hold "pending loan renegotiation and/or condonation.” The provision, however, was vetoed by the president.

The said groups also reiterated the call to Congress by social movements for a moratorium on external debt payments and the transformation of that fund into an economic stimulus package. The groups urged lawmakers to realign the total P200-billion foreign debt service earmarked for 2009 in order to boost spending on social and economic services that will contribute in shielding the Philippines from the global fallout of the current American economic crisis.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Group commends petition to cancel Austria incinerator loan

October 2, 2008

GROUP COMMENDS PETITION TO CANCEL AUSTRIA INCINERATOR LOAN

US$2 million must instead go to health services

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia commends the initiative of Representatives Edcel C. Lagman and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel in launching a petition to the Austrian parliament to cancel a 1997 loan agreement with the Philippines used by the Department of Health (DOH) in the acquisition of 26 medical waste incinerators, which were later found out to be highly polluting.

“The petition should subsequently lead to allocating the roughly US $ 2 million per year loan payments to the delivery of health services, where financial resources are sorely deficient” said Ronnel Lim, HCWH-SEA Program. “The incinerators were not as they were presented to be by the suppliers and we should not be blindly paying for them.”

The 26 medical waste incinerators distributed to government hospitals controlled by the Department of Health were all decommissioned in 2003 following the results of an emission test study jointly conducted by the DOH and the World Health Organization (WHO),

Dent in health budget

According to the petition signed and launched by Representatives Lagman and Hontiveros, the Austrian loan payment for 2008 accounts to 25 per cent of the country’s total 2008 health budget for addressing backlog in infrastructure.

The petition highlights that the loan continue to eat up a large sum of the government’s resources which could have been allotted instead to the delivery of health services.

Lim added, “In 2008, total health budget is only 7.7 percent (Php22.9 billion) of the total amount automatically allocated to the debt interest payments (Php295.75 billion).”

“This is clearly culpable for our poor health situation,” he exclaimed.

He cited a global report placing Philippines 60th in the world health system, “awfully left behind by other Asian countries”—Singapore at 6th, Japan at 10th, Thailand at 47th, Malaysia at 49th and South Korea at 58th.

A recent report by Save the Children International revealed that only a third of Filipino children under the age of 5 get basic health care, making the Philippines one of the worst places for infants and mothers.

Another report said that two to three poor Filipino patients share one hospital bed in many of the government hospitals, while seven out of 10 Filipinos especially in the rural areas die without seeing a doctor or a health worker.

Lim added that the money used to pay for the loan may also be used for other projects , among which is the installation of non-burn treatment technology, such as autoclaves , for disinfection of medical waste from hospitals.

"By canceling the loan, the Austrian government could achieve the original purpose for which the loan as an official development assistance was originally intended, which was to help Philippine hospitals manage their infectious waste. As things stand now, the DOH hospitals don't have the money to invest in treatment technologies because of this loan that needs to be paid until 2014."

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. IT IS ALSO A MEMBER OF THE STOP TOXIC DEBT CAMPIGN- THE CIVIL SOCIETY GROUP THAT IS CALLING FOR THE CANCELLATION AND NON-PAYMENT OF AUSTRIAN LOAN. For more information, visit www.noharm.org.

Group commends petition to cancel Austria incinerator loan

October 2, 2008

GROUP COMMENDS PETITION TO CANCEL AUSTRIA INCINERATOR LOAN

US$2 million must instead go to health services

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia commends the initiative of Representatives Edcel C. Lagman and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel in launching a petition to the Austrian parliament to cancel a 1997 loan agreement with the Philippines used by the Department of Health (DOH) in the acquisition of 26 medical waste incinerators, which were later found out to be highly polluting.

“The petition should subsequently lead to allocating the roughly US $ 2 million per year loan payments to the delivery of health services, where financial resources are sorely deficient” said Ronnel Lim, HCWH-SEA Program. “The incinerators were not as they were presented to be by the suppliers and we should not be blindly paying for them.”

The 26 medical waste incinerators distributed to government hospitals controlled by the Department of Health were all decommissioned in 2003 following the results of an emission test study jointly conducted by the DOH and the World Health Organization (WHO),

Dent in health budget

According to the petition signed and launched by Representatives Lagman and Hontiveros, the Austrian loan payment for 2008 accounts to 25 per cent of the country’s total 2008 health budget for addressing backlog in infrastructure.

The petition highlights that the loan continue to eat up a large sum of the government’s resources which could have been allotted instead to the delivery of health services.

Lim added, “In 2008, total health budget is only 7.7 percent (Php22.9 billion) of the total amount automatically allocated to the debt interest payments (Php295.75 billion).”

“This is clearly culpable for our poor health situation,” he exclaimed.

He cited a global report placing Philippines 60th in the world health system, “awfully left behind by other Asian countries”—Singapore at 6th, Japan at 10th, Thailand at 47th, Malaysia at 49th and South Korea at 58th.

A recent report by Save the Children International revealed that only a third of Filipino children under the age of 5 get basic health care, making the Philippines one of the worst places for infants and mothers.

Another report said that two to three poor Filipino patients share one hospital bed in many of the government hospitals, while seven out of 10 Filipinos especially in the rural areas die without seeing a doctor or a health worker.

Lim added that the money used to pay for the loan may also be used for other projects , among which is the installation of non-burn treatment technology, such as autoclaves , for disinfection of medical waste from hospitals.

"By canceling the loan, the Austrian government could achieve the original purpose for which the loan as an official development assistance was originally intended, which was to help Philippine hospitals manage their infectious waste. As things stand now, the DOH hospitals don't have the money to invest in treatment technologies because of this loan that needs to be paid until 2014."

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. IT IS ALSO A MEMBER OF THE STOP TOXIC DEBT CAMPIGN- THE CIVIL SOCIETY GROUP THAT IS CALLING FOR THE CANCELLATION AND NON-PAYMENT OF AUSTRIAN LOAN. For more information, visit www.noharm.org.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

RP parliamentarians petition cancellation of Austrian incinerator loan

October 1, 2008

RP PARLIAMENTARIANS PETITION CANCELLATION OF AUSTRIAN INCINERATOR LOAN

Representatives Edcel C. Lagman and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel today launched a Parliamentarian Petition calling on the Austrian government to cancel the loan that financed the 1996 Austrian Medical Waste Incinerator Loan Project, branding it obsolete, illegitimate and unscrupulous and enjoining colleagues in both the Senate and the House of Representatives to sign the petition.

The petition is part of the Stop Toxic Debt Campaign of the Eco Waste Coalition, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia.

The 1996 loan agreement worth Php503.65 million involves the acquisition of 26 medical waste incinerators from Austria for use of government-run hospitals in the Philippines.

The petition which was launched during a press conference in Quezon City aims to gather signatures of Philippine lawmakers before it is presented to the Austrian parliament.

According to Lagman and Hontiveros-Baraquel, they will enjoin their colleagues in Congress to sign the petition as well as remind them of their previous decision to suspend interest payments for the said loan agreement in the 2008 Budget.

The 14th Congress passing the 2008 Budget provided a special provision suspending interest payments amounting to P 5 billion for loans challenged as fraudulent, wasteful and/or useless. The Austrian Medical Waste Incinerator Project was included in the list.

However, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vetoed the said provision. In the proposed P 1.41 trillion 2009 Budget, payment for said project is reportedly pegged at $ 2.2 million or P 100 million.

First world inequity

Manny Calonzo of Eco-Waste Coalition said that this is another case of a “1st world country waste thrown to a 3rd world like the Philippines” citing that the incinerators were of poor quality, having failed to pass the emission levels guaranteed by the supplier and the emission tests conducted by the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a 2003 emission test conducted by the WHO and the DOH, the dioxin emission of one incinerator tested was eight hundred times the limit set by the Philippine Clean Air Act.

He added that in contravention of European Union (EU) environmental standards, the incinerators exceeded the EU limits on emission. An EU-member country is supposed to accept, enforce and implement EU standards into its national law.

When Austria and RP entered the agreement, there is an EU Council Directive concerning the incineration of hazardous waste, which regulates among other pollutants, dioxins and furans.

According to Calonzo the directive was “obviously missed out” in the Austria-PR loan agreement because the government is still paying for 26 highly polluting incinerators.

Third world blind conformity

Merci Ferrer of HCWH-SEA added that the worst part is “we are paying for incinerators that are no longer in use.”

The 26 incinerators were decommissioned following the approval of the Clean Air Act of 1999 banning the use of technologies harmful to the environment such as the medical waste incinerators. Although the Act has been passed in 1999, the use of medical waste incinerators was extended to July 23, 2003.

According to Ferrer the loan payment started in 2002 and now amounts to US$2 million a year. “If our Congress will not push for this petition, our government will continue to pay until 2014 and this is a huge burden not just for the national pocket but for the majority of Filipinos who are already foregoing hospital care and visits,” she added.

Repayment scheme is divided into 24 equal semi-annual installments with an interest rate of 4 per cent every year. Ferrer added that paying for this loan is simply “blind conformity.”

Debt cancellation at its best

For her Part, Lidy Nacpil, Vice President of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) emphasized that this is not the first time an onerous loan or a third world debt will be cancelled or will be demanded for cancellation.

Nacpil said the Government of Norway in 2006 unilaterally and without any conditions cancelled US$80 million in debts owed by five countries: Egypt, Ecuador, Peru, Jamaica and Sierra Leone concerning the controversial Norwegian Ship Export Campaign which operated from 1976 to 1980.

A failed development policy lacking in proper needs assessment and a proper risk analysis were used as pretexts for the cancellation. The action was widely seen as an international precedent of a creditor country not only admitting responsibility of its flawed projects but also of the cancellation of loan agreements it provided which only undermine a nation and its people’s interest.