Together with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Programme, Health Care Without Harm is implementing a Global Environment Facility funded initiative.

The project is titled  “Demonstrating and Promoting Best Techniques and Practices for Reducing Health Care Waste to Avoid Environmental Releases of Dioxins and Mercury.”  It has been developed primarily under the GEF mandate to assist developing countries in meeting the objectives of the Stockhom Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The $10 million project will demonstrate dioxin and mercury-free medicine within model health care facilities.  It is set to begin its implementation phase in the last quarter of 2008 in eight participating countries:  Argentina, India, Latvia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Senegal, Tanzania and Vietnam.
 
The project’s overall objective is to reduce environmental releases of dioxins and mercury by promoting best techniques and practices for reducing and managing health care waste. 

We will meet this objective, through the following components which each participating country will implement in collaboration with national governments, participating NGOs, professional associations, universities, hospitals and clinics.

• Developing model urban and rural hospitals that demonstrate approaches to eliminate dioxin and mercury.

• Establishing national training and education programs on health care waste management to serve respective countries and the regions in which they sit.

• Assuring that new management practices and systems piloted by the project are nationally documented, promoted, disseminated, replicated, and institutionalized.

• Collaborating with Stockholm Convention National Implementation Plan preparation process.

• Disseminating and replicating project results regionally and globally.

We are also collaborating with University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to build and test low-cost, small- to medium-size non-incineration technologies for use in developing countries.  The technologies will be manufactured using local resources and a range of energy sources including solar energy.  The goal of the GEF project is to promote and replicate these technologies in other countries.

Key Resources

Tanzania's project to replace an incinerator with a safer, non-burn waste treatment system

A Summary of the GEF MedWaste Project

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

WHO Policy on Health Care Waste Management

WHO Policy on Mercury in Health Care

Global Environment Facility

Best Techniques and Practices, summary

Best Techniques and Practices, full document