The story of the Sambhavna Clinic, a non-profit holistic health clinic in Bhopal, India, built to treat those injured by the Union Carbide toxic gas release in 1984. enlarge video
Contact: Brenda Afzal, MS, RN 410-465-6907
Take Action: Tell EPA to Close Toxic Air Pollution Loophole from Coal-fired Power Plants
Washington, DC — After a 20 year delay, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a rule that will significantly reduce emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal burning power plants. This cleanup action is long overdue! Despite the availability of proven control technologies, a 'toxic loophole' has allowed many coal-burning power plants to operate without any federal limits on emissions of mercury; arsenic; dioxin; acid gases such as hydrogen chloride; and other dangerous pollutants. Coal-fired power plants emit 386,000 tons of hazardous air pollutants each year, leading to a range of adverse health effects, including premature death and developmental delays in children, asthma, and increased respiratory illnesses.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently accepting comments on new standards that will do much to reduce this toxic power plant air pollution.
We can and must act now to make sure that the promise this rule proposes is kept. Please, send in your comments today!
Send Comments.
Heath Care without Harm, an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, is working to transform the health care sector, 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. To learn more about HCWH's work, visit our website at www.noharm.org, our YouTube channel at HCwithoutharm, and our twitter feed at hcwithoutharm.
Webinar: How Sustainable Hospitals Are Achieving Major Savings
Health Care Without Harm and The Commonwealth Fund present a webinar based on the recent groundbreaking findings on how hospitals can achieve savings and reduce their carbon footprint through sustainability programs. This one-hour webinar draws on the findings of a recent Health Care Without Harm Research Collaborative/ Commonwealth Fund study, "Can Sustainable Hospitals Help Bend the Health Care Cost Curve?" which shows that savings from interventions to reduce energy use and waste, and achieve operating room supply efficiencies could exceed $5.4 billion over five years and $15 billion over 10 years for the health care sector. In addition to detailing the study findings, the webinar includes presentations from two health systems about why they chose to focus on sustainability and what challenges and rewards are in store.
Key Resources
- Energy Impact Calculator
What are your facility's energy health impacts and costs? What can you do to improve them?
- Learn about Practice Greenhealth and the Healthcare Clean Energy Exchange
- Green Guide for Health Care Report:
A Prescriptive Path to Energy Efficiency for Hospitals
download report (pdf) read abstract (pdf) - Healthcare Energy Project Guidebook, designed to provide decision makers with knowledge about improving energy efficiency (pdf)
