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| In this issue |
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| Featured News – Global |
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UN Human Rights Report Calls for An End to Medical Waste Incineration
HCWH praised an official report by a Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council that calls for an end to the incineration of medical waste in order to protect human health and the environment. To complement the report from the Special Rapporteur, HCWH publicly released its own report, which HCWH staff, with the assistance of network members and waste management experts across Africa, Asia and Latin America, assembled. Special Rapporteur Report | HCWH Report |
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| Global News |
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Climate & Health Summit Registration Now Open!
HCWH, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the Climate and Health Council and the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, together with several Parnter organizations are convening the first Global Climate and Health Summit on December 4 in Durban, South Africa. The event, which will take place parallel to the COP 17 climate negotiations, will bring together key health sector actors to discuss the impacts of climate change on public health and solutions that promote greater health, as well as economic equity between and within nations. Find out more or register. |
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| Asia |
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India: Punjab Doctors Asked to Replace Mercury-based Equipment
Collaborating with HCWH's India Partner, Toxics Link, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) Chairman K S Pannu has asked doctors to replace mercury-based medical equipment with non-mercury devices. more | visit Toxics Link web |
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Philippines: Anti-incineration Campaign Gathers Strong Support
Responding to the threat of a repeal of the incineration ban, entertainers, politicians and activist groups, including HCWH, united to convey a strong message against medical waste incineration and to remind the public not to forget about the incinerator-pollution that once poisoned the air. more |
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| Latin America |
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Argentina: First Latin American Conference of Hospitals For Environmental Health
HCWH is organizing a regional conference that will share experiences between and among hospitals and health professionals from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico among others. The Conference will also mark the of launch HCWH’s new Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Agenda. more (in Spanish)
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Argentina: Ombudsman's Office Against Mercury Thermometers
Argentina's National Ombudsman joined HCWH and a broad coalition of health organizations to call on the Ministry of Health to end the sale of mercury thermometers to the general public while guaranteeing vulnerable groups access to alternatives. more (in Spanish) |
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| Africa |
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What Africa Expects in Durban
The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), a platform for over 300 civil society groups in 45 African countries, including HCWH partner organization groundWork, underlined the urgency of agreeing to deep, legally binding climate pollution reduction targets at UN climate talks in Durban in December. more |
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| Featured Partner |
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FHI360
Global development organization FHI360 is partnering with HCWH to improve medical waste management in developing countries. In response to the growing concern regarding poor handling of medical waste FHI is working to promote awareness of the issues and encouraging partners, donors, health providers and governments to improve medical waste management practices and is also is committed to promoting measures that enhance human health and protect the environment. more | visit FHI360 web |
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| Event Calendar |
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Buenos Aires, Argentina: 1st Latin American Conference of Hospitals For Environmental Health
Dates: 13th and 14th, October 2011
Organized by Health Care Without Harm Latin America and with multiple sponsors, including the Pan-American Health Organization
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Nairobi: Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Prepare a Global Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury (INC3)
Dates: 31st October to 4th November, 2011
Organized by UNEP
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Durban, South Africa: 1st First Global Climate and Health Summit
Dates: 4th December, 2011
Organized by Health Care Without Harm, the Climate and Health Council and the World Federation of Public Health Associations
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| Editorial |
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Building Momentum
HCWH has been busy lately. We are participating in major advances in a broad array initiatives. Here's a brief sampler:
In September, a UN Human Rights Commission Special Rapporteur released a report calling for an end to medical waste incineration. HCWH played a central role in contributing to the report and released our own catalogue of human rights impacts of healthcare waste. These reports bolster HCWH's increasingly successful work, carried out in collaboration with partners large and small around the world, to promote sustainable healthcare waste management.
In the middle of October we will be releasing a comprehensive Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Agenda that will become the framework for our efforts to green the health sector in coming years. The Agenda will form the basis of a worldwide network of hospitals and health systems committed to reducing their ecological footprint and promoting community environmental health. We will launch the Agenda at a Latin America-wide conference of Hospitals for Environmental Health.
In early November we will be in Nairobi continuing to demonstrate health sector leadership at the third round of mercury treaty negotiations. At that meeting we will be reporting on the constantly growing success of the HCWH-WHO Global Mercury-free Healthcare Initiative, including activities in countries as diverse as Indonesia, Chile, China and India.
And on December 4, HCWH, together with a dozen partners, is organizing the First Global Climate and Health Summit in Durban, South Africa. This event, which will bring together a broad array of health sector actors from around the world, aims to spur forward the emergence of a global movement on climate and health.
You can find out all about these activities, and more, by reading on.
Enjoy the newsletter!
Josh Karliner
International Team Coordinator
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| Coming Soon |
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Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Agenda
In mid-October, HCWH will launch a comprehensive environmental health framework for hospitals and health systems around the world. We will also establish a Network for hospitals to work together to reduce their ecological footprint and promote environmental health. Look out for the special announcement! |
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| U.S. and Canada |
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HCWH Launches Clean Air Promise Campaign
HCWH US is asking health care professionals, responsible corporations, members of Congress, respected community leaders and citizens around the country to promise to protect the health of children and families from air pollution. The "Clean Air Promise" campaign is part of a wider initiative by HCWH to defend the Clean Air Act, by engaging nurses and other health care professionals to help draw attention to the health consequences of air pollution. more |
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| Europe |
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Fewer Carbon Emissions Means Better Health and Greater Productivity
As part of HCWH's work on climate change, Dr Pendo Maro HCWH Climate Change and Policy Advisor and Christina Reinards from the Health and Environmental Alliance (HEAL) were in Poland to share recent findings on the health and economic benefits of tackling climate change with senior government officials and other top policy makers in Warsaw and Poznan. more
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| New Resources |
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Climate and Health Resource Center
HCWH's Global Climate and Health Resource Center is a new information and action hub for the health sector as it moves to address climate change. find out more |
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WHO's Technical Guidance on Substituting Mercury Thermometers and Sphygmomanometers
WHO has issued a Technical Guidance Document for the safe substitution of non-mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers in health-care settings. It is designed to support professionals responsible for institutions or ministries desiring to switch to safer non-polluting technologies in health care. more
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