RESOLUTION ON A PVC PURCHASING POLICY

WHEREAS, the Healthcare Pollution Prevention Roundtable (Roundtable) was convened by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) in September 1996, being composed of materials managers and other key decision-makers from several Minnesota healthcare institutions, providers, representatives of a state physicians’ association, a state hospital association, a plastics industry trade association, and other; and

WHEREAS, the Roundtable was convened as a forum for a voluntary, collaborative and open process based on the premise that healthcare institutions can collectively arrive at solutions to environmental problems which are more effective and less costly than is often the case when such solutions are imposed by legislative and regulatory bodies; and

WHEREAS, the Roundtable held two formal meetings during which information was presented by experts in toxicology, medical plastics research and development, medical plastics incineration, and others regarding the environmental consequences of incinerating polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products, health risks posed by dioxins in the environment and pathways to human exposure, medical products made from non-PVC materials that are currently available for purchase and those which are being developed, and other topics; and

WHEREAS, at the conclusion of its second meeting, Roundtable participants completed a survey assessing whether the information presented indicated to them that the risks posed by incineration of PVC medical products warranted continued examination of non-PVC products, to which seven of the eight healthcare service providers and other Roundtable participants responded affirmatively and formed the Health PVC Working Group; and

WHEREAS, the Environmental Protection Agency has identified medical waste incinerators as among the nation’s leading emitters of dioxins, and Minnesota has 25 operating medical waste incinerators, and many solid waste incinerators which may incinerate non-infectious medical waste; and

WHEREAS, research indicates that medical waste incinerators across large parts of the U.S. and Canada emit dioxins which are carried by wind currents and deposited in Minnesota; arid

WHEREAS, numerous studies show that PVC constitutes the overwhelming proportion of chlorinated organics in the medical waste stream; and

WHEREAS, the weight of credible scientific evidence supports the conclusion that the removal of such materials from the waste stream will significantly reduce dioxin emissions; and

WHEREAS, dioxins are highly toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative pollutants that have been associated with a wide range of health effects at extremely low exposure concentrations in wildlife, including cancer, immune system suppression, reduced sperm production, feminization of males, development and behavioral problems in offspring, and research is being conducted to determine whether the increased rates of these conditions in humans may also be attributable to dioxin exposure; and

WHEREAS, the Environmental Protection Agency in Its 1994 Dioxin Reassessment report has stated that the average U.S. body burden of dioxins is "at or near levels known to cause harm"; and

WHEREAS, recycling programs for PVC medical products do not currently exist in Minnesota, and many of those in other states suffer from quality control problems, unstable markets for recycled materials, rely on subsidies from PVC medical products manufacturers in order to remain economically viable, do no insure that products made from recycled materials wilt not themselves be incinerated, thereby merely delaying the production of dioxins, and do not address dioxins produced during the PVC production process; and

WHEREAS, a materials substitution approach, by removing from the waste stream materials which produce dioxins when incinerated, is Likely to be more effective in reducing dioxin emissions from medical waste incinerators than costly pollution control technologies which capture only a portion of pollutants after they have been produced; and

WHEREAS, price-competitive non-chlorinated alternatives which are equivalent in function and performance to existing PVC products are being more widely available on the market for some PVC products, and more such products will be developed and wilt come onto the market as customer demand for them increases; and

WHEREAS, a fundamental ethical principle of health care is "First do no harm."

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Minnesota Public Health Association adopt the recommendation of the Healthcare PVC Working Group that healthcare Institutions in Minnesota adopt and implement the following purchasing policy.