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Green Circle | march Issue

Featured Case Studies

Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi

To reduce their carbon footprint, Holy Family Hospital in Delhi installed 4000 m² of solar panels on the rooftops of their buildings. These arrays deliver clean, renewable energy directly to their facilities while reducing their emissions by 25 tons of carbon dioxide per month and saving them over $50,000 per year.

Click here to read the full case study

King George’s Medical University, Lucknow

To reduce the power cost and promote sustainability within the hospital, King George’s Medical University in Lucknow undertook solar energy and waste recycling initiatives. The hospital installed an on-campus solar power plant generating 200kW of energy that saves $45000 of energy costs per year. Additionally, hospital installed 30 solar parabolas to cook food for 3000 hospital patients. The management replaced regular 250W sodium lights with 120W LED lights and High-mast lights of 850W with those of 250W to further save the energy costs. Plastic waste generated at the hospital is sold to authorized recyclers after treatment and disinfection, to avail financial benefits of over $2000 annually.

Solar Parabola installed at KGMU, Lucknow

Click here to read the full case study

Prolonged Health Impacts from Mosquito Mats And Liquidizers

Most parts of urban and rural India face vector borne diseases via mosquitos throughout the year. The common forms of protection from mosquitos are usually through mosquito repellant creams, coils, mats, and vaporizers. These repellents use allethrin group of compounds, herbs and diethyltoluamide which have harmful impacts (Sharma, V. 2001). Allethrin used in mosquito repellants have been reported to increase blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability, suggesting a delayed maturity of BBB and biochemical changes causing health risks, especially during early stages of life (Gupta et al, 1999).

The product composition and quality of mosquito repellants has improved vastly in the last few years, from using undoubtedly hazardous substance to currently using plant based product or synthetic pyrethroids from the same family (Coene, 1989). The present mosquito repellents are less hazardous compared to yesteryear products, but are not risk free (Pierre M,2017)

The toxicity of mosquito coil is impacted via four routes: oral, ocular, dermal and by inhalation. A closed chamber experiment showed evidences of toxicity from mosquito coil exposure. The most common form of primary signs reported in users were respiratory, eyes and nasal irritation (Liu WK & Sun SE, 1988). Of which the inhalation route revealed the coil toxicity through clinical signs of apathy and drowsiness. In real exposure situation, the user is exposed to the entire coil which by burning diffuse the insecticide active ingredientsbut also the combustion products of the entire product. Prolonged exposure to mosquito coils shows toxicity observed in the respiratory route which could cause bronchial pneumonia in the lungs, acute glomerulonephritis. The toxicity is a result of a complex mixture from smoke from the burning coil (Pierre M,2017). Some studies also state that prolonged exposure to mosquito coils may be a risk factor for development of lung cancer. Risk of lung cancer was more significant with users who used more than 3 coils in a week than users who used less than 3 coils in a week. But users who used less than 3 coils a week also showed significant risk of lung cancer (Chen SC, 2008&Kuo CY, 1987 & Liu WK, 1987). Also, long term exposure among children cause asthma and persistent wheezing (Azizi BH, 1991 &Fagbule D, 1994).

Prolonged use of mats can also be harmful to several organs in the human body. It can lead to corneal damage, shortness of breath, asthma, and might even damage the liver in long run (Macan et al 2006 & John et al, 2015). A study conducted in 2013, revealed that continuous inhalation of prallethrin 1.6% insecticides, commonly present in Electric Mosquito-Repellent Liquid pyrethroid, poses toxicity on hematological variables. It also reported that Pyrethroid group of insecticide may cause hematological, biochemical, cytokine disturbances and possible mutagenic damage to the tissues (Mona, 2013).

GGHH Connect 2019 Evolution

Over the last 5 years, GGHH Connect has become the connective tissue of our ever expanding network. It is a clearinghouse for the suite of GGHH member resources and tools, the home of the Hippocrates Data Center and a unique, online learning hub to crowdsource sustainable health care advice and solutions. Most importantly, it is supporting health care facilities around the world to reduce their environmental footprint.

The past 5 years have also seen dramatic innovations and improvements in technology. In order to take advantage of these developments and offer the best, most efficient platform for GGHH members, we will undergo the building of GGHH Connect 2.0 in 2019. We are excited about this process and collaborating with members throughout it.

Key upcoming dates and information:

We will turn off the current version of GGHH Connect the week of 25 February.

We will export and save all content and discussions for import into GGHH Connect 2.0.

However, please save any information from discussion forums that you need as this won't be available until later in 2019.

A scaled down GGHH Connect will be available for members to access GGHH Guidance Documents, Hippocrates Data Center, webinar recordings and presentations and other resources.

Continue to go to www.gghhconnect.net to access the site.

During this first phase of transition, discussion forums will not be available immediately, but we hope to bring them back as soon as possible.

We will keep you updated on progress regularly throughout this process. An email outlining steps and tips for accessing the new GGHH Connect will come next week when we transition over to it.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact us at any time.

Best regards,

The Global Green and Healthy Hospitals team

HELP Green Hospital Awards, 2019 at AHPI Global Conclave

HELP-Green Hospital Awards was a joint collaborative with our HELP member Association for Healthcare Providers in India (AHPI). HELP Secretariat played a vital role in setting up the criteria for the 2019 Green Hospital Awards. The Green Awards was awarded to four hospitals for their excellence in Climate-Smart healthcare approach. They are,

  • Kasturba Hospital, Manipal
  • Fortis Hospital, Mohali
  • Kovai Medical Centre & Hospital Ltd, Coimbatore
  • Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, New Delhi

For more information on the conclave and picture, click here

Upcoming Events

March 23rd, 2019 in New Delhi: Second edition of the National Health Conclave themed–“Climate Change and Health-Role of the Health Sector”

The Conclave is dedicated to the health impacts of climate change in India and appropriate risk mitigation and adaptation strategies, with specific focus on the health sector. The conclave will cover talks and panel discussions on the theme and is proposed to conclude with an inspiring concert themed – “LET US LIVE”, featuring Grammy award-winning composer, music producer and environmentalist, Mr. Ricky Kej. For further information, please contact nationalhealthconclave@gmail.com

To join HELP or to know more about the platform, kindly write to help.ceh@phfi.org or click here

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HELP was established by Public Health Foundation of India and Centre for Chronic Disease Control with Health Care Without Harm. Photo credits: Pexels: Free Stock Photos. Copyright © Health and Environment Leadership Platform, 2019. All rights reserved.
Created By
Shriram Manogaran
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