YOU CAN’T HAVE healthy people without a healthy environment. We know that pollution and environmental degradation can cause a range of health problems, from mild stomach ailments to birth defects, cancer and death. This creates strain on the health care system and ends up costing us all.
According to some estimates, adverse environmental exposures in Canada are associated with up to 25,000 deaths, 194,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 new cases of cancer each year, with costs as high as $9.1 billion a year.
The health sector itself, which contributes about 10 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product and employs close to 1.7 million people, creates considerable waste and pollution and consumes a lot of energy.
Recognizing the connection between healthy people and a healthy environment, leading health-professional organizations have joined together to call for an environmentally responsible health sector in Canada.
The Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association and more, with help from the David Suzuki Foundation, recently voiced a commitment to make the sector greener and to get governments to consider the links between health and the environment when making policy decisions.
Beyond cleaning up its own act and trying to get the government to pay more attention to the environment, the sector hopes to set an example for others to follow.
Greening their own operations is a great start for health care institutions, but health professionals have been demonstrating environmental leadership in the wider community as well.
For example,the Ontario College of Family Physicians and Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario advocated for a recent ban on “cosmetic” or unnecessary lawn and garden pesticides in the province.
The organizations supporting the greening of Canada’s health sector are encouraging the use of energy- conserving techniques and products in health facilities, along with reducing waste.
We have many reasons to protect the environment. As health professionals have recognized, two big reasons are to protect our health and to save money.After all,healthy environments lead to healthy people and healthy economies.
