APRIL 2000

SHAKING DOWN MERCURY WORKSHOP: JUNE 8TH
Mercury has long been recognized as being highly toxic to the human nervous system and more recently, a serious threat to the natural environment. Ironically, the health care industry has been identified as a contributing source of mercury pollution, but it’s a health threat that the health care industry can do something about.

On June 8th, the Foundation for Healthy Communities and the NH Department of Environmental Services will present a full day workshop for hospitals that will focus on reducing or eliminating mercury at its source. It will also show how to properly manage the mercury that can’t be eliminated.

The program, conducted by hospital professionals and regulatory experts, will give participants the opportunity to learn about:

* Mercury’s prevalence in healthcare and reasons to be concerned about it
* Mercury reduction strategies with a focus on purchasing alternative products
* Proper mercury management, training and cleanup procedures
* Recycling and disposal options for both large and small quantity generators


Hospital professionals will share their facility’s reduction success stories, including how they gained administrative support for implementing reduction strategies and some of the financial and community benefits their hospital’s experienced. Representatives from the NH Department of Environmental Services and the U.S. EPA will provide updates on mercury related legislation on the state and regional front as well as current federal laws governing compliance. The results from last fall’s Hospital Baseline Survey will be also be discussed.


Who should attend:
Facilities Management
Health & Safety
Environmental Services Hazardous Waste Management
Purchasing Agents
Nursing Staff Infection Control
Other Interested Parties

The cost is $25 per person, which includes lunch and handout materials. Look for program and registration materials in the mail soon. For more information contact Debbie Augustine at 225-0900 or daugustine@nhha.org. Don’t miss this exciting event and the chance to network with your peers from hospitals across the state!


 FOR YOUR HOSPITAL – JUST IN TIME FOR EARTH DAY!
The Foundation for Healthy Communities is pleased to provide New Hampshire hospitals with a special gift for Earth Day 2000. Our Waste, Our Responsibility: Moving Toward a Pollution Prevention Approach in the Healthcare Industry is a 20-minute video presented by the University of Vermont and the U.S. EPA. It’s a must see for hospital administrators, facility managers and employees at all staff levels within the healthcare delivery system. It was designed to increase awareness of the problematic nature of waste management in the healthcare industry and to provide some possible solutions of how to responsibly manage the byproducts of healthcare as part of a hospital’s commitment to a healthier community. New Hampshire’s Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a recognized leader in integrating waste management into its organizational goals, is one of the hospitals featured in the film.

Your hospital’s Director of Education and Training will receive a copy of the film by Earth Day, April 22nd. Be sure to check it out – we think you’ll like what you see!


EPP FOR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
What’s EPP and what does it have to do with healthcare organizations? EPP is short for environmentally preferable purchasing. It includes purchasing products and services whose environmental impacts have been found to be superior to competing products. Now there’s a bi-monthly publication dedicated to EPP news for health care organizations called the Health Care EPP Network Information Exchange. It’s published by the Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction. To subscribe to an email version, or a free paper version,  send your email address to EPP.News@state.ma.us or call Lara Sutherland at 617-626-1091.


U.S. EPA SALUTES TWO NEW HAMPSHIRE HOSPITALS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently recognized two New Hampshire hospitals for their mercury reduction achievements through the agency’s Partners for Change Mercury Challenge program which encourages New England medical facilities to lead the nation in eliminating mercury and mercury-containing waste by 2003.

Wentworth-Douglass Hospital (WDH) was acknowledged for eliminating approximately 1,000 mercury fever thermometers a year when they decided to stop sending them home in their newborn kits and discontinuing their use in the birth center and pediatrics. Since beginning their efforts they have reduced the number of mercury sphygmomanometers by 50 percent. They have also switched to "mercury reduced" (i.e."green") fluorescent bulbs, which they also recycle. WDH’s overall goal is to reduce 50 percent of its mercury by 2001 and 95 percent of it by 2003.

Franklin Regional Hospital (FRH) was recognized for its adoption of a purchasing policy statement of "No medical equipment containing mercury will be purchased." In addition, FRH immediately removed mercury thermometers in many areas of the hospital. They have also been educating both their employees and the community about mercury pollution with an overall goal of reducing the utilization of mercury within the hospital and the greater Franklin community.


For more information, or to sign up for the Mercury Challenge, call 1-888-372-7341.


P2 OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHEMICALS IN HOSPITALS
The Colorado Hospitals for a Healthy Environment has developed a 36-page handbook, Pollution Prevention Opportunities for Chemicals in Colorado Hospitals. It includes general pollution prevention (P2) guidelines, suggested alternatives and P2 recommendations for specific chemicals like mercury and silver, vendor information, and extensive resource material for additional assistance. While some information specific to Colorado is included, the general information and resources are applicable anywhere. Contact Debbie Augustine at 225-0900 or daugustine@nhha.org for a copy.
May 12: Preventing Needlestick Injuries: The Time is Now! 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. This interactive teleconference is designed to educate nurses and others in the health care industry about the problem of needlestick injuries and how they can protect themselves from this hazard. It’s produced and presented by the American Nurses Association and the University of Vermont.

For more details or to register your organization for the teleconference transmission, call Lora Phillips at UVM at (800) 639-3188. Also visit the ANA web site at www.needlestick.org for more information about ANA’s efforts for a safer workplace.


Safe Needles Save Lives
ANA to Offer Educational Focus During National Nurses Week


Washington, D.C. - The American Nurses Association (ANA) has joined with the University of Vermont to offer a teleconference on preventing needlestick injuries on May 12, 1:30-3:30 p.m. EST. The teleconference is designed to educate nurses and others in the health care industry about the problem of needlestick injuries and how they can protect themselves from this hazard. ANA is sponsoring this as part of its Safe Needles Save Lives campaign and as a service to nurses during National Nurses Week, May 6-12.

Recently the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a compliance directive for its bloodborne pathogen standard requiring hospitals to use safer needle devices. In addition, five states (CA, MD, NJ, TN, TX) have passed needlestick prevention legislation. As strong advocates for both the compliance directive and legislation, ANA will offer this teleconference to educate, instruct, and empower health care workers on the use of safer needle devices.

Every year RNs and other health care workers sustain 600,000 to one million needlestick and sharps injuries – resulting in at least 1,000 new cases of health care workers with HIV, hepatitis C, or hepatitis B. The technology exists to protect health care workers from needlesticks, yet less than 15 percent of U.S. hospitals use safer needle devices, such as retractable needles.

"Health care professionals face the risk of needlestick injury every day," said ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN. "We know these injuries are preventable; yet, not enough is being done to prevent them. The key to reducing this type of injury is through eliminating unnecessary sharps and utilizing safer needle devices. Health care workers need to be aware of existing devices, know how to use them, and be involved in the selection of these devices."

In addition to the teleconference, ANA and the Training for the Development of Innovative Control Technologies (TDICT) project, which aims to educate health care agencies and health care workers in sharps injury prevention, will present six one-day Needlestick Injury Prevention Workshops in May and June. The workshops will provide a hands-on opportunity to evaluate the newest needlestick devices designed to prevent injuries. Product testing and simulated practice in the actual use of these products will be key features of the workshops.

"I can enthusiastically recommend the TDICT content since I received my own training using their technique and served as a clinical consultant," exclaimed Foley.

Teleconference and workshop topics will include the epidemiology of injuries and strategies for prevention, an update of federal government research and education, regulatory efforts designed to assist in the implementation of effective exposure control programs and criteria for evaluation and selection of safer needle devices. The teleconference will also feature a case study of The Greenville Hospital System(GHS) in Greenville, SC. Key leaders involved in creating and implementing the needlestick prevention program at Greenville will share experiences, lessons learned and outcomes of their ongoing work.

The teleconference will feature national experts, including ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Director Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH; Campaign for Health Care Worker Safety founder Lynda Arnold, RN; Massachusetts Nurses Association President Karen Daley, MPH, RN; TDICT Director June M. Fisher, MD; International Healthcare Worker Safety Center Director Janine Jagger, MPH, PhD; Premier Safety Institute Director Gina Pugliese, MS, RN; occupational health nurse practitioner Katherine Twitchell, MS, RN, CS; and ANA Occupational Safety and Health Specialist Susan Wilburn, MPH, RN. Fisher and Wilburn will conduct the workshops. The teleconference will offer 2.4 continuing education contact hours, and the workshops will offer 7.8 contact hours. (revised 3/22/00)

"Regardless of experience or practice setting, all health care workers are at risk. Health care workers must work together to protect themselves and others from the preventable risk of needlestick injuries, and the potentially life-threatening infections that may result," said Foley.

ANA has been advocating for the use of safer devices and protections for health care workers since the 1980s. The ANA Safe Needles Save Lives campaign encompasses all of ANA's work on this issue by advancing its agenda through education, workplace advocacy, collective bargaining and federal and state legislation.

Funded with an unrestricted grant from BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a manufacturer of safe needle devices, the teleconference will be broadcast at sites throughout North America via satellite, video conferencing and the Internet. The one-day workshops will be held in different cities from across the United States. For locations and Information will soon be available by http://www.uvm.edu/~dceweb/profprog/healthCare/teleconferences/index.html and www.needlestick.org.