15 March 2010, People's Journal
Now that El Niño and the power supply shortage that goes with it are upon us, the government is left with no option but to idle some hydro-electric power plants and switch to coal-fired and bunker fuel-run generating facilities.
Two months before the election and the “presidentiables” may still get the health care sector’s vote. But on top of the other qualifications already presented by many groups, the health sector’s call remains: who is most supportive of green health care?
But the trouble with the switcheroo is that coal – most definitely the dirtiest source of energy – emits noxious chemicals and deadly fumes harmful to both public health and the environment.
Coal-fired power plants spit out mercury – a toxic substance that is known to cause birth defects, respiratory-pulmonary diseases, and other life-threatening ailments. They also spew out sulfur dioxide, another harmful chemical and “particle matter” or commonly known as black soot which very tiny particles blown into the atmosphere from the plants’ smoke stacks, inhaled by people and gets lodged in the lungs.
About 40-percent of the national energy mix is accounted for by coal-fired plants.
But we must not only worry about mercury coughed up by coal plants. Right inside our medical facilities, health professionals, patients, and even plain visitors are exposed to the dangers of the chemical.
That’s why we are relieved that a group of medical doctors and environmental-health group Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia is pushing for the banning of mercury in health care and promise a vote for the “presidentiable” who can make this happen.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries working to transform the health-care sector worldwide without compromising patient safety or care so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment.
The group noted that no one among the presidential candidates have presented a comprehensive health-care policy that focuses on safe medical facilities, practices, and procedures.
In the medical ecology forum dubbed Towards a Green Lush Eco-Friendly Environment, Philippine College of Physicians-Southern Luzon chapter signed the Green Health Covenant pledging to enjoin their candidates to be supportive of a mercury-free Philippines and other green health-care agenda.
The group, an umbrella organization of internists in the Philippines, also signed a memorandum of cooperation outlining the steps toward the movement to a 100-percent mercury-free health care.
It said a ban on such goods combined with a leader who is strict in the implementation of the law and who believes in the wisdom of greening the system are the necessary factors of a green health care.
”Two months before the election and the “presidentiables” may still get the health care sector’s vote. But on top of the other qualifications already presented by many groups, the health sector’s call remains: who is most supportive of green health care,” Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA executive director, said.