Achievments

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In almost a decade, Health Care Without Harm - Asia has caused a major shift in the attitudes of health institutions, workers, manufacturers, and the government towards the use of mercury in medical instruments and the shift from burning of medical waste to the promotion of non-burn treatment technologies.  

Our successes include:

Securing national policies to phase out mercury-based medical devices

• The organization held dialogues with local government units and encouraged hospitals and health care centers to switch to safer alternatives. We also collaborated on an administrative order mandating the gradual phasing-out of mercury-containing devices from all Philippine hospitals by 2010. 
• The Philippines was the first Southeast Asian - and the first developing - country to have a national legislation on mercury phase-out.

Preventing the usage of medical waste incinerators and promoting safer waste management 

• The Philippines is also the first country to ban the use of incinerators. The country spearheaded the documentation of a national government mass immunization project that demonstrated the viability of waste management without incineration. 
• Our Health Waste Assessment Project (HWAP) in Manila, Baguio, and Northern Samar on the other hand, documented the safe waste management practices of local hospitals, providing a model to other hospitals around the world.

Influencing the government to adopt environmentally-sound health policies 

• Given the dialogue surrounding the hazards of mercury, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), the country's government health insurance provider announced it would no longer accredit hospitals which continue to use mercury-based devices. It’s a far cry from the outdated 2009 Philippine General Appropriations Act, which allocated Php 13.2 million for purchase of mercury thermometers in government-run hospitals.
• HCWH-Asia also initiated more sound procurement procedures. These steps were implemented to ensure that the country did not become a dumpsite for other country’s rejected medical devices. In 2008, the Philippine congress cancelled payment for an onerous 1997 loan on 26 medical waste incinerators from Austria that had been decommissioned following a law banning the use of incinerators nationwide. In 2009, close to fifty congressmen signed the petition calling the Austrian parliament to cancel the loan.
• On that same year, Php 100 million was allocated towards the purchase of an alternative medical waste treatment facility.