Improving Air Quality in Your Community
Indoor Air: Hospitals
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.Additional Information
- The Need to Reduce Air Pollution in Hospitals
- Health Effects of Air Pollution in Hospitals
- Reducing Air Pollution in Hospitals
- Mercury "Turn-In" Programs
Tools and Calculators
You can help hospitals reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) that may affect employees, patients, their families, and the community by conducting the following activities:
- Make connections
- Encourage hospitals to implement a mercury reduction plan
- Develop pollution prevention certification
- Encourage a "top down" pollution prevention approach for mercury reduction
- Help hospitals raise mercury awareness in the surrounding community
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Make Connections
How?- Get to know local hospital administrators. They know best about the materials and procedures used in their hospitals and the regulations with which they must comply.
- Keep local media aware of progress by sending them updates. Publicity can reward success and attract more public involvement.
- Increases awareness of pollution prevention needs within hospitals.
- Increases public awareness about progress in reducing air pollution in hospitals.
- Time required to meet with hospital administrators.
Encourage Hospitals to Implement a Mercury Reduction Plan
How?- Encourage hospitals to develop a mercury housekeeping program. This program provides specific direction on all aspects of mercury management, including:
- How to handle mercury.
- How to conduct a mercury audit.
- How to track mercury use.
- How to clean up mercury spills.
- How to properly dispose of mercury.
- Provide information about the costs and benefits related to reducing mercury usage within hospitals.
- Reduces mercury emissions within hospitals due to proper mercury management.
- Reduces or eliminates mercury usage within hospitals.
- In one survey, 60% of respondents had implemented a mercury management policy (Hospitals for a Healthy Environment).
- Time required to meet develop a mercury housekeeping program.
- Software that describes how to locate and reduce mercury pollution throughout the healthcare system.
- Making Medicine Mercury Free: A 2005 Report on the Status of Virtual Mercury Elimination in the Health Care Sector (PDF) (7 pp, 147 KB)
from Hospitals for a Healthy Environment.
Develop Pollution Prevention Certification
How?- Help hospitals work with societies such as the American Hospital Association to sponsor a certification for those who actively reduce air emissions.
- Tangible evidence that a hospital is striving to reduce air emissions through pollution prevention.
- Time involved in working with societies.
Encourage a "Top Down" Pollution Prevention Approach for Mercury Reduction
How?- Develop a training and communication program aimed at increasing general awareness of mercury health impacts.
- Train employees to look for ways to reduce mercury pollution.
- Develop and implement a protocol to prevent hospital employees from disposing of mercury in sharps, infectious, or any other waste containers.
- Reduces risk from air emissions due to system-wide pollution prevention measures.
- Time associated with working with hospitals to implement system-wide pollution prevention measures.
- Software that describes how to locate and reduce mercury pollution throughout the healthcare system.
- Hospitals for a Healthy Environment sponsors pollution prevention awards.
- Along with EPA, the American Hospitals Association, American Nurses Association, and Health Care Without Harm sponsor two awards that target mercury pollution reduction.
- Resources for pollution prevention within hospitals
- Mercury Use Reduction and Waste Prevention in Medical Facilities
Help Hospitals Raise Mercury Awareness in the Surrounding Community
How?- Alternatives to mercury thermometers include electronic, infrared, chemical strip, gallium, indium, and tin thermometers.
- Mercury blood pressure cuffs can be replaced by aneroid and electronic blood pressure cuffs.
- Use gastrointestinal tubes weighted with tungsten or water instead of mercury.
- Replace mercury pharmaceutical products with mercury-free preservatives.
- Identify why mercury is present as an active ingredient in laboratory chemicals. It may be possible to identify a mercury-free alternative.
- Insist on mercury disclosures of all incoming products to the hospital.
- Insist on using recovered and recycled mercury in all products that do not yet have mercury-free alternatives.
- Reduces risk of mercury exposure to citizens within the community.
- Positive promotion of hospitals as partners within the community.
- Costs associated with providing promotional materials.
- Mercury Fever Thermometer Information (PDF) (1 pg, 78 KB) from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection