Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa Wins “Making Medicine Mercury Free Award”
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On March 28, 2003, Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa (SMCSR) received the Making Medicine Mercury Free Award, given by the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) program, a landmark initiative to improve environmental performance in health care.
The Making Medicine Mercury Free Award is a one-time award given to facilities that have met the challenge of becoming "mercury-free." Hospitals that receive this award have to meet stringent benchmarks for mercury elimination. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin and developmental toxin and can impact human health in extremely low levels. Health care facilities are a major contributor to mercury emissions to air.
The award gives SMCSR local and national recognition for satisfying one of the key goals of H2E, a unique partnership of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm, designed to improve the environmental performance of the health care field.
The H2E program is creating a national movement for environmental sustainability in health care. The goals of H2E are to eliminate the use of mercury in healthcare by 2005; to cut health care waste in half by 2010; and to identify and eliminate persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic chemicals in the health care system. More than 425 partners, representing almost 1,400 health care facilities have joined H2E and are committed to achieving those goals.
"Sutter Medical Center has played an important role in eradicating the threat of mercury to vulnerable populations such as infants, pregnant mothers and young children," said Laura Brannen, Director of the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment Program. "They are to be commended for creating a safer and healthier environment for both their patients and their community."
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