[GreenYes] Hospitals for a Healthy Environment New Website!

["Laura Brannen" <laura.brannen@valley.net>]

Seasons Greetings!

The health care industry is, ironically, a source of environmental harm.
THe Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) program is designed to help.
If you're working with health care facilities in your area, or even the
facility you visit as a patient, you can participate by getting them to join
as an H2E partner.  The new H2E website www.h2e-online.org is up and
running - yahoo.  Below is the official press release  -- please forward
this to your colleagues, listservs, contacts, etc.  Please e-mail me if you
need an official copy on letterhead.  If you have any questions, please let
me know.  THanks for your participation in getting your health care
facility(s) to join!

Laura Brannen
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
Health Care Without Harm
P.O. Box 188
Lyme, NH  03768
ph. 603/795-4040
fx. 603/795-2761
h2e@valley.net


-------------------------
HEALTHY HOSPITALS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
NEWS RELEASE - For Release: Thursday, December 19, 2001
Contacts:
Alicia Mitchell, American Hospital Association, 202-626-2339 Cindy
Price, American Nurses Association, 202-651-7038
Stacy Malkan, Health Care Without Harm, 202-234-0091
Tom Murray, U.S. EPA, 202-564-8829

LANDMARK PARTNERSHIP UNVEILS NEW TOOLS, RESOURCES FOR HEALTH CARE
PROVIDERS

December 19, 2001, Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the American Hospital Association, the American
Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm launched a joint website
and announced plans to ramp up efforts to improve environmental
performance in health care.

The announcement heralds a new phase for the Hospitals for a Healthy
Environment (H2E) program, a landmark collaborative effort between the
four national groups. The H2E program grew out of a Memorandum of
Understanding signed in 1998 by AHA and EPA to help hospitals create
healthier communities.

Launched today, the new H2E website -- www.h2e-online.org -- provides
useful tools for hospitals seeking to improve environmental performance,
including a comprehensive list of mercury reduction resources and a
step-by-step guide to minimizing waste. A new H2E listserv provides a
forum for health care professionals to discuss technical information and
practical strategies for pollution prevention.

H2E also unveiled two new programs designed to encourage hospitals to
get involved. The Partners for Change program gives hospitals national
recognition for improving environmental performance, and the Champions
for Change program recognizes organizations that promote H2E within the
health care field.

Already, two regional hospital associations and a national environmental
group have signed on as Champions for Change. The District of Columbia
Hospital Association, the New Hampshire Hospital Association and the
National Wildlife Federation have committed to work with hospitals to
advance the goals of H2E.

H2E aims to enhance efforts within the health care field to minimize the
production of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) pollutants and
to reduce the volume of waste generated. H2E is committed to the virtual
elimination of mercury-containing waste from the health care field waste
stream by the year 2005, and to an initial goal of achieving a 33
percent reduction in all waste generated by the health care field by
2005 and a 50 percent reduction by 2010.

“The H2E program provides health care facilities with the tools,
resources and national recognition for them to be real leaders in
promoting environmental and human health. We invite all health care
professionals to join us in this collaborative effort," said Laura
Brannen, H2E coordinator for Health Care Without Harm.

"As we deliver the highest quality health care in the world, health care
institutions generate a tremendous amount of waste. Our goal is to
reduce the amount and toxicity of waste that comes from caring for
patients.”

# # #




Laura Brannen
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
Health Care Without Harm
P.O. Box 188
Lyme, NH  03768
ph. 603/795-4040
fx. 603/795-2761



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