April 1999

THIS EARTH DAY, TAKE THE MERCURY CHALLENGE
"Widespread exposure to mercury is among the most serious environmental health risks in New England. Medical facilities can make a major difference in helping to reduce mercury in the environment." So began a letter sent last month to CEOs at every New England hospital from John DeVillars, Regional Administrator for EPA-New England. In that letter he challenged New England medical facilities to lead the nation in eliminating mercury and/or mercury containing waste by 2003.

A toxic and persistent pollutant: Mercury’s effects on public health and the natural environment are well documented. Its primary health effects are on the neurological development of children exposed through fish consumption, and fetuses exposed through their mother’s consumption of fish. It is responsible for health advisories limiting consumption of fish in 40 states, including all of the New England states.

The Partners for Change Mercury Challenge is a recognition program designed by EPA-New England to promote voluntary, measurable reductions of mercury in medical facilities. It’s a way for New England hospitals to discover and to implement responsible environmental practices for mercury and to receive community recognition for those good efforts. To become recognized as a Mercury Challenge Partner, medical facilities must set goals for mercury reduction and report progress toward achieving them. Typical components of a successful mercury program would be:
* Conduct a baseline inventory to identify all sources of mercury in use, storage, or being purchased, including mercury found in equipment, instruments and products.
* Develop a quantifiable mercury reduction goal.
* Design an action plan outlining the steps and time frames you expect to take to achieve your goal.


Nationally, EPA and the American Hospital Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 1998 to virtually eliminate mercury-containing waste from the health care industry waste stream by 2005. Taking the EPA-New England Mercury Challenge will help shave 2 years off the national target date, a laudable goal considering that nearly half of the mercury pollution in the Northeast is homegrown. Signing on now will prove to the other New England states and the rest of the nation that hospitals in New Hampshire are willing to get tough on mercury fast.

NHHA recently applied to become a supporting organization of the Partners for Change Mercury Challenge and is committed to helping our members realize the value of this important program both from a good business and an environmental standpoint. Call 1-888-372-7341 for the Partners for Change program brochure and application or visit their website at http://www.epa.gov.region01/steward/neeat/.


"SWAPPING" THEIR WAY TO MERCURY REDUCTION
Long a leader in waste reduction and recycling, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is working to further educate its staff about the hazards of mercury in the hospital, as well as in the home. This Earth Day, April 22nd, hospital employees who so chose, will bring in their mercury thermometers from home to trade in for a free digital thermometer. This event, called the Making Medicine Mercury Free: Mercury Thermometer Swap was made possible through a generous donation from Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc., a Waste Management company.
Beginning in January 1999, Concord Hospital’s Family Place nursery replaced mercury thermometers in their newborn care kits with digital thermometers, thus removing more than 1,200 mercury-filled thermometers from the community waste stream annually.
Judy Sharpe, RN, of the Family Place, helped spearhead this effort and also worked to organize a thermometer exchange day for the Concord community in which participants will turn in their mercury thermometers and receive a voucher for a free digital thermometer from participating Concord area pharmacies. This event will be held on June 5th at the City of Concord’s Hazardous Waste Collection Day.


AND THE WINNERS ARE….
Both Concord Hospital and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center were awarded the 1999 NH Governor’s Award for Pollution Prevention. The award ceremony was held at the Seventh Annual NH Pollution Prevention Conference at UNH’s New England Center on April 5th. The award recognizes businesses and organizations that have successfully reduced or eliminated waste(s) at the source.

Concord Hospital was given the award for their Green Team’s efforts in mercury reduction. Besides removing 1,200 mercury thermometers from their newborn kits, they removed mercury thermometers from all of their clinical areas. They also recycled approximately 34 pounds of elemental mercury, 7,600 feet of fluorescent tubes and 160 fluorescent "U" tubes, and 4 pounds of broken mercury-filled thermometers and manometers. Accepting the award on behalf of CH’s Green Team was Mike Melody, Safety/Risk Coordinator and Judy Sharpe, RN of the Family Place.

Vikke Jas, Manager of Biosafety and Environmental Programs received the award for DHMC’s facility-wide approach to waste reduction and pollution prevention, including mercury reduction. DHMC is also working to totally phase out the use of ethylene oxide, an extremely hazardous substance used to sterilize instruments, by June of 2000.


MERCURY IN THE "HOUSE"
A bill has been passed this legislative session by the NH House of Representatives to establish a committee to study mercury source reduction and recycling issues. If the bill also passes the NH Senate, items to be studied would include requiring all generators of mercury-containing medical waste to introduce mercury source reduction and source separation programs and prohibiting the disposal of mercury-added products and equipment in municipal waste combustors and medical waste incinerators. The study committee would also examine the idea of imposing a fee on the sale of mercury-added products in the state. For a copy of the proposed legislation (HB340), contact Debbie Augustine at 225-0900 or daugustine@nhha.org.


NEED HELP GETTING STARTED?
Visit the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Resources pages of the NHHA website at http://www.nhha.org/Library/R4page.htm . Click on the R3 Programs~Services button and look under the Mercury Reduction Programs/Resources for answers to frequently asked questions about mercury fever thermometers, alternative products, mercury recycling, etc.


DID YOU KNOW?….
There’s a company in Dover, New Hampshire that specializes in recycling computers and other information technology. American Adaptive Cable, Inc.(AAC) is well equipped to address the needs of health care institutions, namely the protection of sensitive information. AAC wipes hard drives of all information and for no charge will inventory all items to be picked up for clients.

Free pick-ups and a higher return for your goods: Rather than paying for retired systems on a per pound basis, AAC either consigns their client’s systems and/or sells related scrap materials, ensuring a substantially higher return for the discarded hardware. For those preferring to swap old technologies for new, consignors can order parts and components and have the cost of the order deducted from their pay-out account. Pick-ups are scheduled throughout New Hampshire on a weekly basis via a regional routing system. For more info, or to have your hospital added to the pick up list, call them at (603) 742-4894.
It takes several thousand years for a monitor to decompose in a landfill.
For every computer that is recycled, there are four that end up in a landfill.
68 % of companies still use a dumpsite as their main source of electronic disposal.