A global environmental organization on Wednesday praised the Department of Health for taking steps to phase out medical devices containing the hazardous element mercury.

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), an international coalition of health care organizations, said the DOH, under the leadership of Secretary Francisco Duque, should be commended for committing to the gradual phaseout of mercury devices such as thermometers  and blood-pressure devices in Philippine hospitals including thermometers.

It said the DOH has already drafted an administrative order calling for the replacement of mercury where viable alternatives exist.

"The draft administrative order also recommends the phaseout of all non-essential uses of mercury in laboratory chemicals; the collection o dental amalgam mercury waste in traps and filters; use of non-mercury-containing batteries where possible; and the proper disposal of batteries; substitution, where possible, of mercury-containing vaccines; use of low-mercury fluorescent lamps and the recycling of fluorescent lamps," HCWH's Global Movement for Mercury-free Health Care report said.

The report also also praised the Philippine Heart Center,  the country's main hospital for patients with cardiovascular diseases, for making a rapid transition towards non-mercury medical devices

"With mercury as a known major environmental and health problem, hospitals need to look for alternatives. The Philippines, through the Philippine Heart Center and the DOH, are leading the change," Faye Ferrer of the Southeast Asia office of HCWH said.

"If discarded as a waste, mercury eventually makes its way into the environment where organisms living in rivers, lakes, or moist earth transform it into toxic organic mercury,  which affects nerves and brains at extraordinary low levels."

The HCHW report documents how health care systems around the world are substituting mercury-based medical devices with safer alternatives, thereby protecting health care workers, patients and the global environment.

The report contains examples of health care professionals, government officials and non-governmental organizations in developing countries working to phase out mercury thermometers and blood pressure devices from hospitals and clinics. It also highlights a series of model policies that are emerging for large cities, national governments, states and provinces in countries such as Argentina, South Africa, India and the Philippines.

Some of the report's findings include:

The health care sector is a key source of global mercury demand and emissions. Mercury waste from broken fever thermometers is significant. For instance, thermometers used and broken in Argentina's health care sector emit an estimated 1 metric ton of mercury per year. The estimate for Mexico is similar. For India, it is 2.4 metric tons.The mercury-based medical device industry is a major polluter.  In China, which produces more than 150 million mercury thermometers per-year, more than 27 metric tons of mercury are lost to the environment before the devices ever leave the factory.Peer-reviewed literature from the last decade shows that digital thermometers and aneroid sphygmomanometers are just as accurate as mercury-based devices.In Argentina, Brazil, Europe, Mexico, South Africa and the United States, health care systems are breaking even or saving money by switching to non-mercury devices. Hundreds, if not thousands of hospitals and health care systems throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America are already going mercury-free.  -- David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com