CALLING GREEN HEALTH CANDIDATES AND VOTERS

January 28, 2010

CALLING GREEN HEALTH CANDIDATES AND VOTERS
Envi-health group challenges politicos and voters to a Green Health Covenant

San Fernando City, La Union - Environmental health group, Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) today challenges all politicians to make green health care part of their agenda and all voters to consider green health candidates.

In The Green Health Covenant: Covenant of the Filipino people for a healthy environment, first presented in a regional conference co-sponsored by the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DoH-CHD), the group is asking all Filipino voters (and politicians) to pledge to encourage candidates who will work for the attainment of green Philippine health care. The conference is attended by 500 hospital representatives from all over Ilocos region.

The main thrust of the Covenant is for a Mercury-Free Philippine health care in line with the DoH Administrative Order (AO) 21 mandating the gradual phase-out of mercury in all Philippine health care facilities and institutions.

“The deadline for the phase-out of mercury is September 2010. Since we are electing new leaders this May, we deem it necessary that we choose candidates who are supportive of greening the health care sector,” said Faye Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Program Officer for Mercury.

Mercury in the health care setting is commonly found in thermometers and blood pressure devices. It may also be present in fixatives, preservatives, laboratory chemicals, cleaners and building products such as thermostats, pressure gauges and switches.

Prior to AO 21, hospitals in the Philippines have a one-is-to-one policy for mercury thermometers meaning every patient admitted in the hospital is entitled to one mercury thermometer. In 2007, one tertiary hospital with more than 280 beds distributed 10,000 thermometers to its patients in just a year.

Of the 1,847 hospitals in the Philippines, only a little more than 50 hospitals have phased-out or are phasing out mercury. That leaves more than 90% mercury-using hospitals.

Mercury spills in hospitals expose patients and health workers to mercury possibly causing lung damage at high doses and damages to the kidney, nervous, digestive, respiratory and immune systems at lower doses.

If discarded as waste, mercury will eventually find its way into the water transforming it into highly toxic methyl mercury. This can affect the brain and the nervous system and even impairs neurological development of infants and children as mercury can pass through a women’s placenta.

“Phasing-out of mercury devices is as urgent as the 2010 election,” said Ferrer.

“An example of mercury poisoning very close to us, although it did not happen inside the hospital setting, is an incident in a Paranaque school where the students played with the elemental mercury in a Chemistry class. These students manifested pink rashes and had to go through several chelation therapies and the school had to be closed for months. The City Government had to hire the services of international groups to do the clean-up.

“And we are just talking of one beaker of mercury. Now consider the number of mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers being used in health care,” Ferrer added.

A gram of mercury, the amount contained in one thermometer, can contaminate 80,940 square meters of lake.

“Acknowledging the dangers of mercury to people and the environment, DoH and several civil society organizations are keen on phasing out mercury in health care. Thus we appeal to all Filipino voters to take a stand and say no to mercury and take it a step further and encourage candidates, both in the national and local elections, to support these green health measures,” Ferrer added.

The Covenant signatories likewise pledge to encourage candidates to work for proper health care waste management acknowledging its importance to general waste management leading to a zero waste Philippines; recognize dangerous chemicals in health care and work towards regulating its use and disposal; and work towards a health setting responsive to climate change.

The traveling Covenant will be brought to the Regional Conferences on Mercury Phase-out and Hospital Waste Management. There will also be an online signature drive at http://GreenHealthCovenant.multiply.com.

Attached is a copy of the covenant.

HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-SEA, see www.noharm.org.ph.


Sonia G. Astudillo, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Faye Ferrer, +63 920 9327151; faye@hcwh.org