For example, nurses and nurse managers can make a case for waste minimization, recycling programs, and products that don t include polyvinyl chloride plastics and mercury. Another reason to get nurses involved is that their participation can make or break the program, said Susan Wilburn, MPH, RN, specialist for occupational safety and health at the American Nurses Association. Frontline workers must also be consulted to make sure worker safety isn t compromised. For example, a hospital trying to eliminate PVC shouldn t replace its vinyl gloves with latex gloves, because latex also poses a health threat. Rather, the facility should use nitrile gloves.
Hospitals are at different stages of mercury elimination.
For example, Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., has eliminated 280 pounds of mercury from its waste in the past four years, becoming 99 percent mercury free. Catholic Healthcare West is using its purchasing clout with vendors in eliminating mercury products systemwide, Leciejewski said. At Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., which already has a mercury segregation and recycling program, administrators are considering going mercury free, said waste minimization coordinator Laura Brannen. Hospitals can reduce toxic pollution by replacing PVC plastic with other materials and avoiding unnecessary incineration which is expensive, as well as harmful to the environment. Far more materials are incinerated in the average medical waste incinerator than necessary to protect the public from disease, according to the Sustainable Hospitals report.