Compliance Assistance & Pollution Prevention in New England

Healthcare: Mercury Challenge Program

In 1998, the American Hospital Association and EPA signed a landmark agreement that launched H2E to advance pollution prevention efforts in U.S. hospitals. The memorandum of understanding that serves as the cornerstone of H2E sets out three main goals:

• Virtually eliminating mercury-containing waste from the health care waste stream

• Reducing the overall volume of waste (both regulated and non-regulated waste)

• Identifying hazardous substances for pollution prevention and waste reduction opportunities, including hazardous chemicals and persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants.

In 2006, H2E became an independent not-for-profit organization.

In 2007, a collaboration emerged that combined Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, the Green Guide for Health Care and the Healthcare Clean Energy Exchange. The result is Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community. This new organization offers its members tools, resources, forums, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to engage the healthcare design, construction and operations sectors in creating safe and healthy healthcare environments.

For more information about mercury reductions:

• Healthcare Environmental Resource Center Mercury in Healthcare page
• EPA: Information for Healthcare Providers
• Practice Greenhealth Mercury page

Information about the Making Mercury Medicine Free Award
Please note this is no longer an EPA award.

New England Mercury Challenge - Partners for Change
The EPA Regional Mercury Challenge program ran in 1999 and 2000. Since the New England hospitals that were part of the regional effort have been incorporated into the national effort, the EPA New England office has discontinued its regional program. A summary of Mercury Challenge Partner efforts are contained in each Partners-to-Partners Mercury Challenge Directory.

2000 Partners for Change Directory Note: This information is provided for reference purposes only. Although the information provided here was accurate and current when first created, it is now outdated. (23 pp., 83 KB, about PDF)

1999 Partners for Change Directory Note: This information is provided for reference purposes only. Although the information provided here was accurate and current when first created, it is now outdated. (8 pp., 43 KB, about PDF)