Old LCD Screens Used for Medical Treatment

  • One research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens, which can be used in medicine (Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)

Some researchers want to recycle
a chemical in computer screens to
use it for a medical treatment.
Shawn Allee reports:

Transcript

Some researchers want to recycle
a chemical in computer screens to
use it for a medical treatment.
Shawn Allee reports:

Most LCD computer screens contain toxic mercury. The European Union will soon mandate those screens be recycled rather than thrown away.

There are other metals and chemicals in the LCD screens that are not dangerous.

Dr. Avtar Matharu is with Britain’s University of York.

His research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens.

It’s used in spongy pads that deliver medicine.

“We can take out Polyvinyl alcohol from the front and back of an LCD screen. We can take what effectively would be a waste resource and potentially use it in a medical application.”

Matharu says getting polyvinyl alcohol out of LCD screens is expensive compared to making it from crude oil, but he says it could be another reason to recycle rather than throw them into a landfill.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Pharmaceuticals Down on the Farm

Congress is looking at restricting antibiotic use on livestock farms. The drugs are added to the animals’ feed to help stop diseases. Antibiotics also make the animals grow faster, and that’s good for farmer’s profits. Mark Brush reports… public health officials are concerned:

Transcript

Congress is looking at restricting antibiotic use on livestock farms. The drugs are added to the animals’ feed to help stop diseases. Antibiotics also make the animals grow faster, and that’s good for farmer’s profits. Mark Brush reports… public health officials are concerned:

A lot of researchers say overuse of antibiotics on farms can lead to bacteria that are resistant to the drugs.

A bill in Congress would stop the drugs from being used to promote growth… and just use them to treat sick animals. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act is sponsored by the only micro-biologist in Congress. Representative Louise Slaughter from New York:

“And we’re watching a whole new classification now of bacteria, which was basically just a cut above harmless, become deadly. Particulary Staphylococcus aureus, which was as common as dirt, but now is MRSA. And can kill you in twenty-four hours.”

Slaughter says the Food and Drug Administration is not doing enough. So Congress has to step in.

The livestock industry says current regulations are enough.

For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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Something Fishy in the Water

  • A new study out of Baylor University finds our pharmaceuticals are getting into fish and other aquatic life (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)

There’s something fishy with pharmaceuticals. Lester Graham reports researchers find the drugs we take end up in some fish:

Transcript

There’s something fishy with pharmaceuticals. Lester Graham reports researchers find the drugs we take end up in some fish:

If you’re a fish living anywhere near a wastewater treatment plant, you’re swimming in drugs.

A new study out of Baylor University finds our pharmaceuticals are getting into fish and other aquatic life.

Bryan Brooks is one of the researchers.

“In many cases we really don’t know the full potential effects of these kind of drugs on aquatic life.”

This is just the latest research that shows the stuff we take passes through us, and ends up in the water.

There’s not a lot you can do about that, but Brooks says at least don’t flush unused medications down the toilet.

“Perhaps the most appropriate way to dispose of unused medications is directly to landfill when it’s properly packaged.”

The FDA says, mix the drugs with something nasty like kitty litter or old coffee grounds so kids won’t be interested. Then put it all in a sealed bag or can with a lid so it doesn’t leak out of a garbage bag.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Acupuncture for the Masses

  • Some consumers choose alternative treatments, like acupuncture, because they want a smaller environmental footprint from their medical care. (Photo courtesy of the National Institutes of Health)

Acupuncture has been used as a medical treatment in Asia for thousands of years. It’s catching on in this country, but it can be pricey. Now a new kind of low-cost acupuncture clinic is springing up with a goal of bringing acupuncture to the masses. As Ann Dornfeld reports, this new type of clinic might just be healthy for the planet, too:

Transcript

Acupuncture has been used as a medical treatment in Asia for thousands of years. It’s catching on in this country, but it can be pricey. Now a new kind of low-cost acupuncture clinic is springing up with a goal of bringing acupuncture to the masses. As Ann Dornfeld reports, this new type of clinic might just be healthy for the planet, too:

Esther “Little Dove” John is lying on a treatment table with the same blissful smile as someone who’s just had a massage. Except she’s about to get stuck with a couple dozen needles.

“Anything in particular you want to focus on today?”

“I have tingling in my fingers and numbness in the toes.”

Acupuncturist Jordan Van Voast taps fine steel needles into John’s hands; then her stomach, her legs, and her ears.

“All of a sudden, my body just relaxed.”

This would be a typical scene from an acupuncture clinic. Except the recliner that serves as John’s treatment table is just one in a circle of ten. It’s a treatment model called “community acupuncture.”

Jacque Larrainzar is getting treated in a chair across from John. She used to go to a standard acupuncture clinic with private rooms. But she prefers the communal style of this Seattle clinic, called – wait for it – “CommuniChi.”

“The feeling is very different. Seeing other people relax and just giving themselves the opportunity to heal is, in itself– I think it helps you to focus on yourself and heal.”

Community acupuncture clinics are designed to make acupuncture affordable to people at all income levels, regardless of insurance. Patients pay a sliding scale fee – as little as 15 dollars per treatment. It’s 60 dollars or more at a standard acupuncture clinic. Community acupuncture keeps costs down through low overhead: using one treatment room and recliners cuts down on electricity and laundry costs. And CommuniChi co-owner Serena Sundaram says that also means a smaller environmental footprint.

“All of those things are really different even than a regular acupuncture clinic, which is already a smaller footprint than a Western practice.”

You don’t need big, high-tech equipment for acupuncture or even electricity — just a place to lie down and a handful of tiny needles.

Patient Esther “Little Dove” John says she’s glad that acupuncture doesn’t involve pharmaceuticals.

“If I were using the mainstream treatment for my condition, I’d be expelling those chemicals into the environment and the fish would be taking it and the birds would be drinking it.”

Scientists have found high levels of pharmaceuticals in the water downstream from water treatment plants. They’re worried about the effect on fish.

Emily Wong is a physician at the University of Washington Medical Center. She practices Western medicine, but also studied acupuncture. Wong says there’s extensive evidence that acupuncture helps with a lot of health problems where Western medicine falls short, like headaches, back aches, and nausea.

But, she says acupuncture is no panacea. She says some acupuncturists claim to be able to treat conditions like kidney stones without scientific evidence to support their claims.

“I see it as being more similar to, for example, physical therapy as a modality that treats many conditions quite well, and as an alternative to a surgical approach or perhaps a pharmacological approach to some conditions.”

If acupuncture works as well or better than a stay at the hospital or a prescription of drugs, it could have a lot lower impact on the environment. And if the new community clinics bring more people to acupuncture, it’s possible the earth will get a little relief too.

For The Environment Report, I’m Ann Dornfeld.

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Study: Home Births Safe for Low-Risk Moms

Only about one percent of North American babies are born at home. But a study in the British Medical Journal reports home births can be a safe alternative for low risk women. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:

Transcript

Only about one percent of North American babies are born at home. But a study
in the British Medical Journal reports home births can be a safe alternative
for low risk women. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:


Researchers followed more than 5,400 pregnant women in the U.S. and Canada who were
planning a home birth with a professional certified midwife.


They looked at the death rate of newborns, the number of mothers who ended up in the hospital,
as well as the number of medical interventions used during labor.


They found low risk women who planned to give birth at home had the same likelihood of their
child dying as low risk women who went to the hospital. That’s fewer than two deaths out of
every 1,000 births.


Kenneth Johnson is an epidemiologist with the Canadian government.


“The participants experienced substantially lower rates of epidurals, episiotomies, forceps
deliveries, vacuum extractions, and cesareans.”


Home birth remains controversial in North America. While several Canadian medical societies
endorse home births, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists remains opposed
to them.


For the GLRC, I’m Karen Kelly.

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Dupont to Pay for Health Testing

  • Teflon is best known for making pans similar to this one "non-stick." But in Teflon's production at an Ohio plant, some of the chemical's ingredients have seeped into the groundwater. (Photo by Davide Guglielmo)

The non-stick substance Teflon is made at a DuPont plant near the Ohio-West Virginia border. The groundwater around this area has been contaminated by a chemical used to make Teflon. The chemical is known as C8. Now, 60,000 residents will be tested to find out whether the chemical is harmful to human health. It could end up being the largest public health screening to occur in the United States. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight reports:

Transcript

The non-stick substance Teflon is made at a DuPont plant near the Ohio-West Virginia border. The groundwater around this area has been contaminated by a chemical used to make Teflon. The chemical is known as C8. Now, sixty thousand residents will be tested to find out whether the chemical is harmful to human health. It could end up being the largest public health screening to occur in the United States. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight reports:


The testing is just getting underway on people who have been drinking water contaminated by C8.
It’s being done as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the company.


Residents of nearby water districts accuse the company of witholding information about the health threats posed by C8. Project coordinator Art Maher says medical histories, personal information and blood samples will be collected from the test subjects, who will be paid for their participation.


“That information then will be fed into a database that ultimately will be passed on to the next step of the settlement agreement, which would be the science panel who would interpret the data.”


If the experts determine there is a link between C8 and any disease, DuPont will be required to spend as much as 235 million dollars on a medical monitoring program for additional testing.


For the GLRC, this is Fred Kight.

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Developing Countries Get Hospital Castoffs

  • A street in Havana, Cuba. After more than 40 years of a U.S. economic embargo and more than a decade after the loss of their Soviet trading partners, Cubans have learned to improvise and make do with old stuff - cars, machines, and even medical equipment. (Photo by Ann Murray)

Tons of medical materials that normally would end up in U.S. landfills are being rescued, repackaged and sent to other countries. An aid group is working with local hospitals and volunteers to get surplus medical supplies to Latin America and the Caribbean. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ann Murray takes us on the trip from salvage to salvation:

Transcript

Tons of medical materials that normally would end up in U.S.
landfills are being rescued, repackaged and sent to other countries.
An aid group is working with local hospitals and volunteers to get
surplus medical supplies to Latin America and the Caribbean. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ann Murray takes us on the trip from
salvage to salvation.


(Sound of warehouse activities)


In a warehouse near Pittsburgh, Global Links staffers are preparing to load a shipment of medical aid into a forty-foot container bound for Cuba. Workers haul pallets of dialysis kits, mattresses, waiting room chairs and gurneys to the loading dock. Everything here has been carefully sorted, evaluated, and matched with requests from the Cuban Ministry of Health.


Kathleen Hower founded Global Links with two friends back in 1989. It used to operate out of their houses. Since then, Global Links has sent $110 million worth of medical aid, all of it requested by the receiving countries. About two-thirds of that has gone to Cuba.


“Cuba’s unique in so many ways; they’re very advanced medically, they do transplant surgery, they have a lot of doctors. There’s no shortage of physicians there. They’re very different than other countries.”


What Cuba shares with other developing countries is critical shortages of equipment and supplies.


(Sound of busy street)


Here in Havana, the streets are filled with Eisenhower-era cars and lined with shops that repair everything from pots to paperbacks. After more than forty years of a U.S. economic embargo and more than a decade after the loss of their Soviet trading partners, Cubans are masters of improvisation.


The same is true for the island’s medical community, says Sebastion Pererra, the former director of Cuba’s Center for Electromedicine.


PERERRA/TRANSLATOR: “The embargo has been like a school for us. It taught us how to keep working with the same machines and not have the identical parts to replace them.”


Pererra says parts and technical information from Global Links have helped keep old medical equipment going. They’ve also supported new programs in breast cancer screening and dialysis research.


MURRAY: “Has the equipment that Global Links sent to you saved lives?”


PERERRA/TRANSLATOR: “It is undeniable.”


Global Links sends materials to Cuba that other countries can’t use. That’s because medical care is not as advanced in many other developing countries.


Doctor Armando Pancorbo uses the salvaged equipment for minimally invasive surgery at the aging hospital where he works. He and his team have done nearly four thousand operations, using equipment and supplies that were thrown out by U.S. hospitals.


This morning, the O.R. is busy. Anesthesiologists prepare a middle-aged patient for gallbladder surgery while nurses set up sterilized instruments.


Back in Global Links’ Pittsburgh office, volunteers help with the labor-intensive job of packing supplies for shipping. Kristin Carreira says this work is helpful on two fronts.


“Our mission here is both humanitarian and environmental. Environmental because all of our medical supplies that we’re working on would have been put in an incinerator or landfill and so we’re really recycling in that sense.”


The American Hospital Association estimates that U.S. hospitals produce about three million tons of waste every year and they pay about three billion dollars to dispose of it. Many of the supplies that end up in the trash are opened but unused. Worries about liability, changes in technology, and a rash of government regulations account for much of the still-useful materials being thrown out.


Vicky Carse is a nurse who traveled to Cuba as a volunteer.


“Seeing people re-washing gloves where we just would open gloves and throw them away, drapes that we just open up and throw away. To see these people harbor these items, re-wash them and re-wash them because they don’t have supplies, just makes you value what you have.”


The medical community is beginning to take notice. More and more US hospitals are contacting aid organizations. Laura Brannen directs a joint environmental program for the American Hospital Association and the U.S. EPA. She says Global Links and similar groups offer hospitals much needed guidance.


“They provide the infrastructure around what can be used around the world. And without those guidelines, hospitals would be tossing this kind of materials because they don’t know where else to send it.”


Global Links founder Kathleen Hower is happy to set up the guide posts. She says we have to realize that we are all members of a much broader community – one that could use our help, even when it’s a matter of just sharing stuff we’d normally throw away.


For the GLRC, this is Ann Murray reporting.

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An Alternative to Waste Incinerators

  • A new process called alkaline hydrolysis is forecasted to be a cheaper, safer way to dispose of animal carcasses. (Photo by Dr. Beth Williams, University of Wyoming, courtesy of CWD Alliance)

Animal research labs usually get rid of carcasses by burning them in incinerators. Now, a new more environmentally friendly technology is being used to dispose of the diseased dead animals and the lab supplies they contaminate. The new method has worked well enough that hospitals are considering it as a way to dispose of medical waste. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Halpert reports:

Transcript

Animal research labs usually get rid of carcasses by burning them in incinerators. Now, a new more environmentally friendly technology is being used to dispose of the diseased dead animals and the lab supplies they contaminate. The new method has worked well enough that hospitals are considering it as a way to dispose of medical waste. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Halpert reports:


Until recently, the only safe way to destroy diseased tissue and other infectious waste was to burn it in an incinerator. But dangerous chemicals such as dioxins spew from the incinerator smokestacks, and burning leaves behind a toxic ash.


(sound of machine whirring)


Now, there’s an alternative to burning. Dr. Gordon Kaye stands in a spotless room beside one of the units manufactured at a company he helped found, WR Squared, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The unit will eventually be used to dispose of 5,000 pounds of dead animals – about the equivalent of five large cows – that were used for veterinary research.


But there will be no smoke. There’ll be no fire.


Kaye’s idea for a new type of disposal technology began 12 years ago when he was a pathology professor at Albany Medical College. He was frustrated with how much it cost to dispose of dead research animals. So, he started experimenting with a new technology. And alkaline hydrolysis was born.


“Well, there are no air emissions from it. It’s a sealed system. It takes place in a hermetically sealed pressure vessel. No dangerous products are produced in it because of the temperature which it takes place.”


Alkaline hydrolysis works like this: infectious waste goes into a tightly sealed vessel, along with strong alkalis which are very caustic. The waste is then cooked at temperatures well above boiling. A chemical reaction causes the waste to break down. The infectious components are neutralized. When it’s over, you end up with two products: a sterile, water-like solution, that can head to a sanitary sewer system, and sterile crushed bones, the consistency of powder, that can be used as fertilizer. Because the end products are clean, they don’t require complicated disposal, so the process is cheaper than incineration.


WR squared now has 60 units in 15 states, primarily at research facilities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has purchased several of them. New York was the first state to allow use of the technology. Ira Salkin directed that state’s medical waste program when it approved WR squared’s process.


“It has less potential problems than is being found with incineration and the use of incineration in the U.S. is decreasing and therefore their system holds great promise. As the numbers of incinerators decrease, one finds they have this alternative to be used to treat pathologic material.”


Environmentalists agree with Salkin that the technology is sound. Horhay Emmanuel is with Health Care Without Harm. He notes that it’s especially effective for one troublesome type of waste, cattle dead from Mad Cow disease.


“Not only does it destroy infectious agents, but it also destroys prion-contaminated waste. And prions are what are believed to cause things like Mad Cow disease, which are difficult to destroy, even by incineration, so WR squared has been shown to destroy these prions in the contaminated waste.”


Last April, The Environmental Protection Agency approved alkaline hydrolysis, along with incineration, as a way to treat Mad Cow diseased waste. And WR Squared’s Gordon Kaye sees that as a big future market.


Horhay Emmanuel, with Health Care Without Harm, says while alkaline hydrolysis is generally good for the environment, there is one concern. The fluid that’s produced could overwhelm some small town’s sewer systems. The company says in communities with small sewer systems, the solution can be released more slowly or during off-peak hours.


So, alkaline hydrolysis process is cheaper, it pollutes less, government agencies like it, and environmentalists find little to criticize.
Now, the company is broadening its reach to treat hospital waste. Many hospitals are using smaller, not very efficient incinerators that pollute more.


WR Squared’s Gordon Kaye says he expects big growth with this new method to dispose of medical and infectious waste as labs and hospitals look for ways to replace their incinerators over the next several years.


For the GLRC, I’m Julie Halpert.

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Teflon Chemical Lawsuit Finalized

The makers of Teflon could have to pay out more than 440-million dollars as the result of a recently settled water contamination lawsuit. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight has the story:

Transcript

The makers of Teflon could have to pay out more than 440 million dollars as the result of a
recently settled water contamination lawsuit. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight
has the story:


The DuPont company was sued in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 80-thousand residents
whose drinking water contains trace amounts of a chemical known as C8. The chemical is used
to make Teflon… and manufactured at a plant near Parkersburg, West Virginia.


DuPont officials say C8 does not pose any health risk but Joe Kiger isn’t so sure. Kiger was the
lead plaintiff in the case. He says the most important part of the settlement is an independent
medical study that will be done to determine if C8 can make people sick…


“I’m concerned about my health as well as my familiy’s health, my wife’s and the people in the
community because this is a major thing.”


DuPont will have to pay 107 million dollars for the study, new treatment equipment for local
water utilities and legal fees and expenses for the residents who sued. It could have to pay
another 235 million for environmental clean up and health monitoring if C8 is found to be toxic.


For the GLRC, I’m Fred Kight.

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Feral Pigs Run for the Border

  • Feral pigs have become a nuisance in Wisconsin, and DNR officials fear that if their numbers do not decrease, they will do a significant amount of damage. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin DNR)

Ag officials are tracking a big pig problem across Wisconsin. Since 1999, growing numbers of feral swine have appeared across the state. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Brian Bull reports, officials now fear the spread of the wild pigs:

Transcript

Ag officials are tracking a big pig problem across Wisconsin. Since 1999, growing numbers of feral swine have appeared across the state. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Brian Bull reports, officials now fear the spread of the wild pigs:


The woolly porkers have appeared in 23 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. They’re damaging crops, digging out ground-nesting birds, and killing small deer. They may also cary pseudorabies and swine brucellosis, threatening domestic pigs.


Wayne Edgerton is agricultural policy director of Minnesota’s DNR. He says the problem could easily spread into his territory.


“They can certainly walk across the ice, so this time of the year they can come across to Minnesota. And I’ve heard they’re actually good swimmers. So even in summertime, they could get their way over to northern Minnesota.”


Some people have speculated that Minnesota’s intense winters would kill off any feral swine crossing the border. But Tim DeVeau, a veterinary medical officer of the USDA, says that’s unlikely.


“As long as they’ve got food, and they’re gonna put fat on, they’ll be well-insulated.”


DeVeau adds that in order to keep wild pigs’ numbers under control, at least 75% of the population has to be destroyed every year. He says that’s not happening.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Brian Bull.

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