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IAQ Index™ provides test kits to help identify volatile organic compounds from product off-gassing in homes, offices and schools.

Abingdon, MD, June 25th, 2012 — Earlier this month, the phillyBurbs.com published a report about a recent chemical fire at a manufacturing facility near Philadelphia.  According to the report, the fire consumed a large amount of the 1 million pounds of ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate stored at the facility.  The owners of the plant performed air testing for volatile organic compound exposure outside of the plant both during the fire and after it was extinguished.

Disasters at chemical plants often make people in nearby areas consider their potential exposure to hazardous chemicals.  Many people don’t realize that many of these same chemicals found at manufacturing plants may already exist in their homes.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, “Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a large group of carbon-based chemicals that easily evaporate at room temperature. While most people can smell high levels of some VOCs, other VOCs have no odor. Odor does not indicate the level of risk from inhalation of this group of chemicals. There are thousands of different VOCs produced and used in our daily lives.”

VOCs are used in everything from common building materials to home and personal care products.  Some of these chemicals are known to cause short and long term health effects or even cancer.  “High levels of VOCs in indoor spaces occur more frequently than most people realize,” reported Bruce Jacobs, CIH, President of IAQ Index, an indoor air quality (IAQ) test kit manufacturer.  “Because VOCs are used in so many products and materials in all of our homes the only way to know if elevated levels are in a home is to have the air tested.  To help people test for VOCs, IAQ Index has developed a test kit that provides easily understood information about any VOCs found,” he continued.

To learn more about testing for volatile organic compounds or other indoor air quality (IAQ) contaminates, please visit IAQ Index at http://www.IAQIndex.com, email info@IAQIndex.com or call (888) 259-3883.

 

About IAQ Index

IAQ Index was developed by a Certified Industrial Hygienist with decades of experience dealing with indoor air quality issues.  IAQ Index was developed as a health-based, easy-to-understand, air quality index that is calculated from data generated for various parameters commonly measured during IAQ surveys.  The approach is similar to the EPA’s Air Quality Index that has been used historically to communicate the risks posed by common pollutants in the ambient air.

By Haydn Bush
H&HN Senior Online Editor

A California hospital aggressively seeks opportunities to reduce its environmental impact while cutting costs.

Editor’s note: This blog is part of Fiscal Fitness, a regular H&HN series exploring the cost containment strategies hospitals are employing in response to reimbursement pressures and an uncertain economic climate. Read more at our Fiscal Fitness page.

At most hospitals, John Danby, the sustainability administrator for University of California-Davis Health System, says, “if somebody gets past 50 percent in [waste reduction], they have a big party.” But UC-Davis has a steeper mandate to fulfill. As part of the University of California system, the hospital is tied to a system-wide pledge to achieve zero waste by 2020. Achieving that goal for a hospital will prove to be an extremely tall order, but Danby says there are plenty of creative ways to reduce its overall footprint while improving the bottom line.

“For any hospital in the environment we are in today, the easiest way to get traction with sustainability is to show a cost containment,” Danby says.

That ethos has translated to a widespread and eclectic range of initiatives that target both reduced environmental impact and cost savings. Several years ago, Sally Lee, who now directs the hospital’s value analysis program, was working on a technology committee with a focus on physician preference items when she discovered that a number of other hospitals, including UC-San Francisco, were reprocessing single-use medical devices instead of throwing them out and buying new ones.

“It was fairly mainstream,” Lee says.

To convince doctors there was no downside to using recycled items, the hospital created a reprocessing committee, which worked with physicans, the hospital’s risk management team and infection prevention experts to research its clinical impact. Ultimately, the commitee determined that device re-processors are held to the same Food & Drug Administration standards as medical device manufacturers, and identified a 2008 Government Accountability Office report that found no elevated health risk for reprocessed devices.

Subsequently, the hospital began reprocessing catheters and sending them to a third party vendor that disassembled, cleaned, sterilized and repackaged the items; other efforts have targeted scalpels, laparoscopic shears and leg clamps. In the first 12 months of the initiative, UC-Davis saved $400,000.

Since then, Lee has taken over UC-Davis’s entire value analysis program; a recent effort to recycle blood pressure cuffs, at $1 per item, has reaped a $30,000 savings. UC-Davis has also worked to improve the source segregation of its medical waste stream from its operating room, resulting in a 30 percent reduction in medical waste and a savings of $30,000.

Energy efficiency initiatives, meanwhile, are often a challenge for hospitals, given that medical providers have stricter lighting standards than non-clinical enterprises. Still, UC-Davis has been able to take advantage of state rebates for lighting controls that use motion detectors to regulate use, allowing the hospital to install much more efficient lighting at a steep discount, Danby says.

“The fixtures were $220, and the rebate was $200,” Danby says. “A lot of it is opportunities like that.”

But the impact on UC-Davis has gone beyond the incremental bottom line improvements; the far-reaching collection of sustainable practices helped UC-Davis nab Practice Greenhealth’s 2012 Partner for Change Award.

“Making that synergy there is really what makes a sustainability program moves forward,” Danby says.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the policy of Health Forum Inc. or the American Hospital Association.

Cecilia DeLoach Lynn, MBA, LEED AP
Director, Sustainability Programs & Metrics
Practice Greenhealth
12355 Sunrise Valley Dr. Suite 680
Reston, VA 20191
Phone: 866-995-1110 /Mobile: 202-744-9871
E-mail: cdeloach@practicegreenhealth.org
http://www.practicegreenhealth.org

Source: Environmental Expert.com

Northwestern Memorial Hospital Achieves 84 Percent Reduction In Sharps Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CHICAGO, June 19, 2012 /PR Newswire/ —  A recent scientific study confirms that Daniels Sharpsmart reusable sharp containers (RSC) help hospitals reduce their carbon footprint by reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Most recently, Daniels Sharpsmart containers have helped the 850-bed Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) obtain an 84 percent reduction in their carbon footprint for sharps waste.  The sustainability paper by Terry Grimmond of Grimmond and Associates and Sandra Reiner, NMH Infection Control and Prevention Coordinator, was recently published online in the International Solid Waste Association’s, Waste Management & Research journal.

‘A top priority for hospitals is finding ways they can practice green healthcare,’ said David Skinner, Vice President of Daniels Sharpsmart.  ‘Thus, it’s imperative that we remain on the forefront of discovering new methods that can help hospitals reduce their carbon footprint while still delivering optimal care to patients.’

Hospitals currently account for 3 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are striving to increase their sustainability and to decrease their global warming potential (GWP). Of their emissions, 54 percent are derived from supply chain goods and services. By targeting supply chain points and replacing disposable sharp containers (DSC) with Sharpsmart RSC, Daniels Sharpsmart explored how NMH could reduce their GWP.

The authors estimated that U.S. hospitals dispose of their needles, scalpels, etc., into 35 million disposable (DSC) or reusable (RSC) sharps containers, which generate GHG in their manufacture, use and disposal.  By using reusable sharps containers, the study revealed that NMH was able to reduce its annual GWP by 127 MTCO2eq (84 percent) as well as diverting 31 tons of plastic and 5 tons of cardboard from being deposited in landfills.  In addition, by using RSC there was a reduction in the number of containers manufactured from 34,396 DSC annually to only 1,844 RSC in year one only.  The study also stated that NMH costs (for containers and disposal) were reduced by 19.2 percent by using Sharpsmarts (which in previous studies were associated with significant reductions in sharps injuries).

The percentage reduction in NMH’s sharps management GWP using Sharpsmarts exceeds the 28 percent target required of United States federal hospitals by 2020 and the 2050 target of eighty percent required by hospitals in the United Kingdom. The authors currently estimate that the total GWP associated with sharps containment and disposal in the United States is approximately 100,000 MTCO2eq per annum.  If reusable sharps containers were used in all of the hospitals in the United States, approximately 64,000 MTCO2eq could be saved.

About Daniels Sharpsmart
Daniels Sharpsmart Inc. is the world’s largest provider of reusable systems for sharps disposal and the second largest company in the medical waste disposal industry in the United States.  The Sharpsmart system was launched in 1999 and is the most widely researched sharps containment system in the world, the only system to have peer-reviewed confirmation of sharps injury reduction and the only system in which all container models meet the tests required by the European Agreement (AFG) on Transport of Dangerous Goods.  The company’s innovative Sharpsmart system is used in health care facilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.  For more information, please visit http://danielsinternational.com/.

Source: Healthcare Design

A global move is underway to raise awareness of how healthcare plays a role in damaging the environment. Whether it’s through joining together as a recognized association that can share ideas on how to lessen the impact or going it alone, the issue is slowly being acknowledged.

In the US, the Healthy Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is made up of three organizations and 11 health systems all focused on steering the healthcare industry to finding ways to function and operate using sustainable and resourceful processes.

The Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Network (GGHHN) is an international group of member countries who have pledged to decrease the environmental footprint of hospitals in their communities and raise public environmental health understanding.

To this end it was heartening to see a recent press release announcing HHI’s move to join GGHHN as a founding member to represent the US healthcare industry in this international forum.

There are some really great ideas and programs taking place all over the world and here in the US. The benefits of connecting these health systems, organizations, and hospitals as they commit to be the leaders in their countries, is the improved health of their communities and populations on a global scale. The knowledge and information gathered will also grow as more hospitals and associations join the network.

The members involved include the International Health Promoting Hospitals Network, the Indonesia Hospital Association, Thailand’s Department of Health, the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, the Sustainability Unit of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, as well as more than 3,500 hospitals from six continents.

Members of GGHHN and HHI are tasked with setting up specific goals to reduce their pollutants and will report their developments and findings with other members regularly.

For additional information on green design and sustainable best practices and technologies, check out The Green Column inHEALTHCARE DESIGN.

WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new framework to help local governments meet their Clean Water Act obligations. The Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework assists EPA regional offices, states, and local governments to develop voluntary storm and wastewater management plans and implement effective integrated approaches that will protect public health by reducing overflows from wastewater systems and pollution from stormwater. In developing the framework, the EPA worked in close coordination with a variety of stakeholders, including publicly owned treatment works, state water permitting authorities, local governments, and nonprofit environmental groups.

EPA’s framework outlines new flexibility to pursue innovative, cost-saving solutions, like green infrastructure, and will help communities as they develop plans that prioritize their investments in storm and wastewater infrastructure.

The framework also highlights the importance of controlling and managing releases of storm and wastewater into the nation’s waters. When wastewater systems, many of which are aging, overflow they can release untreated sewage and other pollutants into local waterways. These overflows can carry a variety of harmful pollutants that can threaten communities’ water quality, including bacteria, metals, and nutrients, and can contribute to disease outbreaks, beach and shellfish bed closings, and fishing or swimming advisories. Stormwater discharges can also contain many of these pollutants, and municipalities are often faced with difficult choices about how to direct their funds to solve the most critical problems first.

The framework document is available on EPA’s website, where the agency will also provide practical examples of how municipalities are implementing this approach, as they become available.

More information: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/integratedplans.cfm

Source: Environmental Expert.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 11, 2012 /PR Newswire/ — A recent survey byCalifornia’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) revealed a serious gap in awareness among drivers who change their own motor oil. While 95 percent of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) oil changers said they recycle their used motor oil, approximately one-third admitted to dumping their used oil filters in the trash, potentially contaminating the environment with hazardous waste.

DIYers who indicated they threw away their used oil filters acknowledged they were not aware filters could be recycled, revealing a critical opportunity to improve oil filter recycling practices across the Golden State.

New efforts to build stronger awareness of the importance of recycling oil filters are rolling out statewide. CalRecycle is using public service announcements, filter exchange events, and other grassroots initiatives to educate the public about the importance of recycling used motor oil and filters together.

‘California’s home mechanics are recycling their motor oil, but we need to make sure they finish the job correctly and take in their filters, too,’ CalRecycle Director Caroll Mortensen said. ‘We are asking news professionals, local businesses, and our local government partners to help us spread the word. Together, we can make big strides to increase oil filter recycling and keep toxic materials out of the environment.’

Each year Californians generate nearly 70 million used automotive filters, which are completely recyclable. After filters are drained, each one still holds about 10 ounces of toxic oil residue and is therefore considered hazardous waste that cannot be thrown in the trash. This trapped motor oil could add up to 2 million gallons of toxic waste going into California’s environment, water systems, or landfills each year if not properly recycled. According to CalRecycle, recycling these filters, which contain about a pound of steel, could produce enough metal to build three large sports stadiums.

Californians can find a list of local Certified Collection Centers on the CalRecycle website. Additional tips and information can be located on the CalRecycle Facebook page and Twitter.

CalRecycle is the state’s leading authority on recycling, waste reduction, and product reuse.  CalRecycle plays an important role in the stewardship of California’s vast resources and promotes innovation in technology to encourage economic and environmental sustainability.  For more information, visit www.calrecycle.ca.gov.

Source:  Environmental Leader News

Sending our rubbish to landfill sites continues to be a major topic for debate as proposals for wind farms and incinerators are becoming more common.

At present, the Local Government Association estimates that we offload twice as much rubbish into landfill sites than Germany does, although Germany has a larger population. Due to the fact that land available for landfill sites is running out, pressure from Brussels and Westminster is making the use of these sites more expensive, which in turn is increasing the pressure to recycle our waste.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has introduced legislative changes aimed to cut down the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill and improve recycling. A major part of the change is the prevention of food waste heading to landfill. Bespoke vehicles that utilize anaerobic digestion provide a totally green service that also offers a viable environmental and economic waste solution. Such a service is able to handle packed and naked food waste, and has proved to be a great success working with 68 Waitrose stores throughout the UK.

Why recycle your food waste?

Methane is produced by decomposing food waste, and it is in actual fact 22 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. Instead of letting food break down in this way, it can be converted into biogas that generates electricity through anaerobic digestion (AD). The only by-product produced through AD is a nutrient rich liquid fertilizer.

• Methane from food waste is 22 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide.
• Recycling food waste generates renewable energy, so is even better than carbon neutral.
• 40 percent of the 14million tonnes of food waste generated in UK each year goes to landfill.
• By using AD to process food waste we are preventing 905kg of carbon emissions per tonne of waste entering the atmosphere.
• Government’s waste policy review announces plans to support development of AD technology in the UK.

What is AD?

Anaerobic digestion (AD) breaks down organic matter using naturally occurring microorganisms. This natural biological process results in the production of a valuable fertilizer as a by-product of producing biogas, a sustainable source of energy.  To convert the biogas into electricity and heat a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) engine is used. Compared to sending waste food to landfill AD processing prevents 905kg of carbon per tonne of food waste being released into the atmosphere.

It is becoming increasingly important that we consider not just how to reduce the waste we create, but also how we can use it, too. Waste is a resource, and when there is scarcity of resources, it is more important than ever to consider sustainability through a broader spectrum of material use.

John Evans is an account manager at Select Environmental Services Ltd specializing in the sales of dry waste management& recycling collection services including EfW, food waste recycling, WEEE waste, paper and card, DMR and clinical waste. For more information contact John Evans on 0118 975 9000 or jre@selectenviro.co.uk.