HCWH Europe joins Break free From Plastic
Health Care Without Harm Europe have joined a network of 90 NGOs in announcing a vision of a future free from plastic pollution!
The healthcare sector has an important role to play when joining this movement towards a plastic free future. It is undisputed that plastics have played a crucial role in the advancements of modern healthcare: from single use medical devices reducing the spread of diseases, to the improvements that plastics have brought to people’s lives though innovations such as prostheses and orthopaedic devices. There are numerous examples of plastic’s role in improving some aspects of healthcare, and in turn patients’ quality of life.
However, whilst improving healthcare, plastics brought with them new risks and harm. Medical devices play a critical role in healthcare, but many contain hazardous substances in their composition that can leach out into patients’ bodies during use, compromising patient safety. One particularly hazardous group of such substances are endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), chemicals that interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system and present a hazard to different physiological and developmental processes. The most common EDCs found in healthcare and medical devices are phthalates, commonly used as softeners in PVC-based medical devices, and Bisphenol A (BPA), used in a variety of plastics with many applications in the medical device industry. 40% of all plastic-based disposable medical devices are made from PVC.1
These same substances can reach the environment through industrial discharge, sewage, landfill leachates, and natural breakdown of the plastics. Phthalates have been detected in aquatic and marine environments, terrestrial ecosystems, and in the atmosphere. Besides the chemical contamination of a wide range of natural habitats, these compounds also create a waste management problem. The disposal of PVC medical waste can also release dioxins and other persistent environmental pollutants, which can have a detrimental impact on the environment. This is despite the fact that safer alternatives for almost all medical devices are available on the market and are already used by many healthcare institutions in Europe.1
Read more about how chemicals in plastic medical devices threaten patients' health and the environment, and them available, safer alternatives in our report.1
Health Care Without Harm Europe joins this movement with the aim to reduce harmful chemicals in plastics, and to eliminate plastic pollution from contaminating our environments and ecosystems.
Join the movement today, and help #BreakFreeFromPlastic
[1] Non-toxic healthcare: Alternatives from phthalates and Bisphenol A in medical devices, HCWH Europe
