The healthcare industry produces waste and emissions that can make people sick, according to a new book, "Greening Health Care: How Hospitals Can Heal the Planet," by Kaiser executive Kathy Gerwig.
It makes no sense that the healthcare industry produces more than its share of waste, greenhouse gases and toxic air emissions — all of which make people sick, Gerwig said in an interview on The Guardian website.
Most of America’s hospitals once had their own incinerators to burn hazardous waste; now medical waste is more likely to be sterilized, then sent to landfill. Hospitals are also using greener chemicals, building LEED-certified buildings and hosting farmers’ markets on their grounds, the article said.
In June, Kaiser became the first health system in the country to tell its suppliers that it would stop buying furniture treated with flame retardants. This month, four other big hospital systems — Advocate Healthcare, Beaumont Health Systems, Hackensack University Medical Center and University Hospitals — said they would stop buying treated furniture.
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