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Clearing the Air in our Nation's Hospitals

We tend to think of hospitals as places to go to cure what ails us – not places that may make us sicker. But today there’s a growing awareness that products used to clean and disinfect these health care institutions may in fact be quite dangerous to some patients.

Cleaning products and other chemicals often found in hospitals can trigger asthma attacks and allergic reactions in many people admitted to the hospital. So can pesticides, mold, latex gloves and the get-well-soon latex balloons sent by well-meaning friends and relatives.

Luckily, many of these products can be removed or replaced by safer alternatives. An international coalition of 450 groups focused on improving health care safety is pushing for such changes, in a report released last fall on hospital-based asthma triggers. Health Care Without Harm’s report highlights the problems associated with using toxic chemicals around people who are sick and vulnerable to exposure.

Some hospitals are already making changes, by eliminating bleach, ammonia and formaldehyde and banning latex balloons. But there still aren’t enough alternative products on the market that meet federal regulations for killing bacteria and other germs.

Meanwhile, asthma rates have climbed 25 percent per decade since 1960. The bigger the problem grows, and the more people who advocate for change, the more likely industry will be to respond with safer alternatives.

To see a copy of the Health Care Without Harm report, click here.

For more information on this story, click here.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org