Philippine Nurses in the Forefront of Mercury Elimination

Manila — The Occupational Health Nurses Association of the Philippines (OHNAP) recently signed the Mercury-Free Health Care Initiative, co-led by World Health Organization and Health Care Without Harm. This global initiative aims to virtually eliminate mercury-based thermometers and sphygmomanometers over the next decade and substitute them with accurate, economically viable alternatives.

OHNAP is a specialty organization of nurses employed in the different industrial, commercial, agricultural, educational and government institutions. Founded in 1950 as an Industrial Nursing Unit of the Philippine Nurses Association, OHNAP now has more than 3,000 members nationwide and an international chapter in Qatar.

OHNAP will be joining other health care facilities, medical universities, local environment and natural resources office and medical associations who have earlier pledged support to the Mercury-Free Health Care Global Initiative and the Mercury-Free Philippine Health Care by 2010 campaign. The other signatories are the Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital, Saint Louis Hospital of the Sacred Heart, Pines City Doctors Hospital, Baguio General Hospital and Fort Del Pilar Station Hospital at Philippine Military Academy all in Baguio City, General Santos Doctors Hospital in General Santos City, St Paul Hospitals in Tuguegarao City and Cavite, Northern Samar Provincial Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, Ospital ng Maynila, Manila Adventist Medical Center and School of Medical Arts, School of Health Sciences at St Paul University in Tuguegarao City, University of the Philippines College of Dentistry, Institute of Public Health Management (IPHM), Woman Health, Northern Samar Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office, the Philippine Nurses Association and the Philippine Public Health Association.

For more information on OHNAP, please visit http://ohnap.multiply.com/

Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. Visit the HCWH website for more information.