Health Care Without Harm News

HCWH Contributes to EU Strategy on Mercury

HCWH Europe participated in the consultation process of the review of the European strategy on mercury and called for the mercury export ban to be extended to the export of products containing mercury - including mercury medical devices. more 

Mercury-Free Health Care – Toward the Tipping Point

As the world’s governments begin negotiations to forge a mercury treaty, WHO and HCWH have issued a two-year progress report on the global Mercury-Free Health Care Initiative. more 

Health Groups Call for 40% Target on Carbon Emissions

Health Care Without Harm Europe (HCWHE) and Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) are calling on EU Heads of States to increase the European target on climate change. more 

Post-Copenhagen Position Statement

The UN negotiations did not deliver the legally binding agreement needed for reducing emissions to protect the climate and people’s health. Rather, world leaders managed to come up with a “letter of intent”, a non-binding declaration without clear commitments from any government. more 

Tackling the Twin Threats of Climate Change and the Global Health Gap

Student and professional health leaders to offer a Prescription for a Healthy Planet - emphasizing the twinned opportunity decision-makers have to tackle climate change, AND to narrow the global health gap between rich and poor. more 

HEAL and HCWH Announce Top-Level Delegation and Daily Briefings at COP-15 Negotiations

HEAL and HCWH are leading a 20-person, international delegation of health leaders to the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen.The health delegation will conduct daily ad-hoc briefings. more 

Health Impact of Climate Change Recognised in European Parliament Resolution

In a plenary vote on its Resolution on Climate Change, the European Parliament has today recognised the need to consider public health, as well as the co- benefits of emission reductions to global health.(1) more 

Health Leaders Call for Strong Measures on Climate Change

Some of the world's largest medical, nursing and public health organisations are calling on world leaders to take bold action to address climate change to avert what could become a global public health crisis. more 

Time to End Use of Mercury-Based Blood Pressure Devices

European environmental and health organisations today reaffirm their demand for the rapid phase-out of mercury-based blood pressure devices used in clinical settings, and ask the EU to act on the findings in a recently published European Commission report. more 

Vassiliou Welcomes Health Community's "Prescription" on Climate Change

HCWH and HEAL handed a giant "Prescription for a Healthy Planet" to European Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou. The health community is asking the EU to provide a better treatment for the ailing climate negotiations. more 

Launch of "Prescription for a Healthy Planet" Campaign

HCWH Europe and the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) will hand a giant "Prescription for a Healthy Planet" to European Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou on Tuesday, 6 October. The health community is asking the EU to provide better "treatment" for the ailing United Nations climate negotiations. more 

Call For "Health Check" at Climate Change Talks

 more 

Turning Up the Pressure: Phasing out Mercury Measuring Devices in Hospitals

HCWH and other leading environmental and health NGOs released a report at a conference in Brussels clearly demonstrating that the transition to mercury-free measuring devices including sphygmomanometers in hospitals is technologically and economically feasible. more 

Health Care Can Help Lead the Fight Against Climate Change

HCWH and WHO issued a discussion paper on the threats of climate change to human health and how the health-sector can play a leadership role in reducing the magnitude and consequences of global warming. more 

Proyecto Luminarias Launched

Health Care Without Harm and The Luminary Project are pleased to announce the launch of Proyecto Luminarias, a Spanish language version of The Luminary Project which highlights the stories of nurses in Spanish speaking countries who are addressing environmental concerns in health care. more 

Dannon Latest to Yield to Health Industry Demands

Dannon has announced to Health Care Without Harm that it will stop using milk from cattle injected with the growth hormone rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) to make its yogurt products by the end of 2009. Dannon responded less than two weeks after competitor Yoplait announced its own plans to eliminate rBGH from its product line. Both companies announced their plans after a number of major health facilities announced their intentions to provide only dairy products produced without rBGH to their patients, staff and visitors. more 

HCWH Lauds Catholic Healthcare West for Rejecting Genetically Engineered and Cloned Foods

The nation's leading Catholic hospital system took the position in recognition of the serious health, environmental and ethical concerns raised by these untested technologies. The decision of CHW to include GE sugar beets in its new food policy has significance for the entire health care food market and perhaps, the entire sugar beet industry. more