An Inconvenient Lab Report · An Inconvenient Lab Report Rhona O’Neill Medical Scientist,...
Transcript of An Inconvenient Lab Report · An Inconvenient Lab Report Rhona O’Neill Medical Scientist,...
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An Inconvenient Lab Report
Rhona O’Neill
Medical Scientist, Wellington SCL.
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Hippocrates
(4th century BC)
Advocated a framework that related medical and public health practices
“Airs peculiar to each particular region”
“Properties of the waters”
“Modes of life”
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Florence Nightingale
(19th century)
Emphasized the importance of clean water and air
Rudolf Virchow (19th century)
Described medicine as a social science and politics as the practice of public
health on a large scale
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Growing divergence between medicine and public health
• The irony with ‘health care’ is that it is now one of the most relatively environmentally impactful industries
• On a sq ft basis, hospitals and related facilities are second only to manufacturing in electricity use
• US EPA states that medical waste incinerators are the second leading qualified source of dioxin emissions
• Second only to municipal waste
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Capital & Coast DHB (CCDHB) generates between 4000 - 5000 kilograms of waste every
day. • Biohazardous materials
– Shipped to Brisbane in refrigerated containers, incinerated and destroyed
– This process itself is carbon intensive
• General waste
– 85% of hospital waste is non – hazardous (WHO, 2015)
• Recyclable waste?
• Hospital infectious wastes costs $1/kg ( Australia)
• Tenfold that of non – infectious waste
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Science is Wonderful!!
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Hospital Laboratories
• Operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Generate large quantities of waste
• Infectious, solid, hazardous, general
• PLASTICS PLASTICS PLASTICS!!
• Use materials that may have toxic effects to the environment
• More than 80,000 chemicals registered with EPA
• Health and environmental impacts are uncertain
• Consume large amounts of energy and generate significant greenhouse gas emissions
• -80 °C freezers
• Fume cupboards
• Consume copious amounts of water
• Analysers running on a constant basis
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Is it possible to minimise environmental impact when working in the lab?
Can we be tree huggers AND scientists?
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Step 1. Start the conversation
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…..and keep it going
• Share ideas and concerns with co – workers
• Make sustainability a regular agenda item
• Create the culture
• Start from the ground up
• Ask questions
• From the people who can make the changes
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Reduce
• Lean management of the lab
• Stock ordering audits to highlight any waste
• Optimal management of stock (assess over or under ordering)
• Collection tube audit
• Identify minimum sample volume
• Less cost, less wastage, less storage, less volume to transport
• Electronic documentation to reduce amount of hard copies
• Choose, where possible products that don't require regulated disposal
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Reduce
• Energy consumption
• Turn off monitors when not in use
• Close that fume hood!
• Defrost freezers regularly to maintain optimum efficiency
• Optimise air conditioning
• Identify equipment that CAN be switched off at end of shift
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REUSE
• Pool bulk reagents
• Printer paper
• Default to double sided printing
• Cardboard inserts
• Unsoiled specimen bags
• Irradiate and recirculate
• Plastic bags for specimen transport
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‘Santa Sacks’ – alternative for collection room sample transport??
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RECYCLE• Hard plastics
• Correctly dispose of pipette tip holders and other hard plastic packaging
• Wash and appropriately recycle empty reagent containers
• Soft plastics
• Negotiate to reduce amount of packaging when engaging with supplier
• Request vendors use biodegradable or recyclable packaging
• Ask vendors to take back their packaging for reuse
• Cardboard boxes
• Recycle or reuse for transport
• Availability of recycling bins
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Make more conscious purchases
• Buy from suppliers that employ green practices of their own
• Bioplastics, recyclable products
• Involvement in sustainability initiatives
• Supply and demand
• Buy local where possible
• Reduce carbon footprint due to transport costs
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Make more conscious purchases
• When replacing big pieces of equipment
• Factor in environmental impact of equipment
• Buy energy efficient refrigerators and safety cabinets
• Give less priority to analysers with larger water and power requirements
• Analysers requiring significant air conditioning or heating requirements
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Make it personal
• Hospital staff are a well caffeinated workforce
• Keep cups
• Reusable containers when buying lunches
• Recycling initiatives amongst staff
• Cycle or Walk to work schemes
• Plastic free or low carbon challenges
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Some good news stories
• International Conference on Sustainability Science
• Switzerland, August 2017
• Global and Climate and Health Alliance
• Greenstar Healthcare environmental rating systems – Australia
• Health Care Without Harm – International coalition of 53 countries
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A greener future?
• Sustainability or green practices - a requirement for accreditation?
• Voluntary → Mandatory
• Bioplastics
• Plastic derived from renewable mass, often starch, cellulose.
• 2% of polymer industry
• Rapidly growing industry
• Lego and Coca Cola are investing in bioplastic alternatives
• Green architecture
• Hospital and lab design
• Solar powered hospitals?
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Useful resources
• www.mygreenlab.org
• Thelabs21.wiki
• www.green.harvard.edu/labs
• www.labconscious.com
• ‘A Plastic ocean’ – Documentary
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“the health sector should lead by example by greening itself and reducing its ecological footprint…to improve global health
and the health of the planet”
(Institute of Medicine 2013 Workshop Summary)
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References
• De Soete W, Jimenez-Gonzalez C, Dahlin P, Dewulf J. Challenges and recommendations for environmental sustainability assessments of pharmaceutical products in the healthcare sector. Royal Society of Chemistry 2017, 19, 3493.
• Lopez R, Badrick T. Proposals for the mitigation of the environmental impact of clinical laboratories. Clincal Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2012;50(9) 1559 – 1564
• Lopez R, Jackson D, Gammie A, Badrick T. Reducing the Environmental Impact of Clinical Laboratories. The Clincical Biochemist Review 2017; 38(1)
• Schettler, T. Environmental Challenges and Visions of Sustainable Healthcare. CleanMed Conference 2001.
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Thank you for listeningDiscussion welcomed