Saint Vincent's Becomes
State's First "Green" Hospital
May 25, 2006
Saint Vincent's Medical
Center in Bridgeport is the first hospital in Connecticut
to "go green," substituting chemical cleaners
with all-natural products.
The conversion has already begun,
department by department, and should be complete by
about the end of May.
"These environmentally responsible
substances are cost-competitive and just as effective,
if not more effective, than standard cleaning products,"
said Deirdre Imus, founder and president of the Deirdre
Imus Environmental Center.
Imus, the wife of national television
and radio host Don Imus, has earned a spotlight of
her own through her work.
Imus discussed the hospital's
"Greening the Cleaning" initiative at the
hospital last Thursday.
"It is really Deirdre who
inspired us to change," said Susan L. Davis,
R.N., president and chief elected official of St.
Vincent's Health Services.
Imus said she's always been health-conscious.
It was in the late 1990s, however, when she experienced
a life-changing flash of insight.
"I was attending a benefit
whose proceeds went toward Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
(SIDS) research," Imus said. "I had attended
so many benefits like that, where the emphasis was
on the treatment or the cure. I thought, what about
the root of the problem? What is really behind this?
I didn't think there was enough being done on that."
Imus became increasingly concerned
that the world's air, food and water were contributing
to rising incidence of cancer, asthma and autism.
"Eighty-two thousand of
these chemicals are being released into our environment,
and 2,000 new chemicals are being introduced each
year," he said.
Last December, with guidance
from the Environmental Center, Hackensack University
Medical Center in New Jersey became one of the country's
first "green" hospitals.
"If it can be done in hospitals,
it can be done anywhere," Imus said.
This spring, New York and New
Jersey passed legislation to phase out toxic cleaning
products from its schools.
Imus said it was imperative that
similar legislation be passed in other states.
"Although we ran out of
time in this session, we are very interested in bringing
this much needed legislation to fruition next year,"
said state Sen. Bill Finch (D-22), who represents
Bridgeport, Monroe and Trumbull.
Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi
lauded Imus' efforts and said he was creating a plan
to "green the cleaning" of five city elementary
schools.
"We are the Park City,"
Fabrizi said. "But we are not nearly green enough."
State Department of Environmental
Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy said tracking
Connecticut's pollutants was an ongoing struggle.
"As Deirdre will tell you,
there are many new contaminants that are being brought
into the environment every day," McCarthy said.
"We can't do it alone. Deirdre's initiative is
a benefit to us all."
Imus said a keystone of the Greening
the Cleaning program was education.
"The more we tell people
that there are alternatives, the better off we'll
all be," Imus said.
The environmental products in
Imus' Greening the Cleaning line use natural oils
and vinegar instead of chemically produced astringents.
State Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal
said that Imus was a true leader in what she was doing.
"This is something that
needs to be done and is being done," he said.
Imus said she was also committed
to working with corporations to change the ingredients
in their products.
"We aren't about bankrupting
the industry," she said. "We're about creating
true change. This is not a trend. This is about rescuing
our environment."
In addition to the Greening the
Cleaning initiative, St. Vincent's has begun removing
and reprocessing waste oils through an industrial
provider that eventually will use the recycled products
in cosmetics.
There also has been a massive
effort to reduce the amount of paper produced in each
department.
The new Radiology Information
System, for instance, will enable the Radiology Department
to go paperless.
The hospital has also long recycled
bottles, cans, plastic, paper and cardboard.
"The Greening the
Cleaning initiative is only the latest development
in St. Vincent's continual goal of being as environmentally
responsible as possible," Davis said.
Saint
Vincent's Becomes State's First 'Green' Hospital
