Charlotte Brody crusading to reduce body burden of toxic chemicals for all people
by Vicki Wolf

Charlotte Brody recently had her body burden of toxic chemicals tested along with Bill Moyers and seven other people as part of a study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and in collaboration with Commonweal and Environmental Working Group. She found out that her body was carrying 85 contaminants, including 45 carcinogens and 56 chemicals that can affect the brain and nervous system, and more, even though she has never worked in industry or even used pesticides. But Brody was actively trying to reduce the amount of pollution in the environment long before she learned what had been deposited in her own body from involuntary exposure to emissions from plants, refineries and incinerators.

Brody became concerned about incineration of medical waste when she was executive director at the Planned Parenthood affiliate in North Carolina. Universal precautions were being implemented as protection from AIDS for staff and patients. These guidelines required burning of waste. Much of hospital waste – IV bags and tubing, mattress covers, oxygen tents – contains polyvinyl chloride plastics (PVC). Just as Brody was implementing these guidelines, new EPA assessments of dioxin revealed that the chemical was much more dangerous and in smaller amounts than once thought. Dioxin is a hazardous chemical created in the production of PVC or any other product containing chlorine, or when products containing chlorine are burned.

Incineration of hospital waste is one of the main sources of dioxins in the atmosphere. Dioxin causes disease by endocrine disruption – playing tricks on the way hormones and chromosomes work – and it is a known human carcinogen.

Brody took a hard look at how incinerating waste to protect patients was creating another health hazard. In 1996, her interest, research and action on this issue led to her involvement in the creation of Health Care Without Harm, now an international coalition of more than 400 organizations in 52 countries working to make health care more environmentally responsible and sustainable. At that time, hospitals in the United States were a major source of dioxins and mercury.

Since then, the organization has managed to reduce the number of incinerators in the U.S. from 5,000 to 400. They also have convinced hospitals to recycle what they can, and make environmentally-conscious purchases. For example, many hospitals are switching to non-cholorinated plastics such as polyethylene or polyolefins for IV containers, and metal or polypropylene to replace more rigid PVC products. Brody says hospital leaders are now sharing ideas and best practices on how to be more environmentally responsible.

HCWH and Brody also have taken a stand on the use of mercury in health care products.

Mercury, like dioxin, is persistent, biocumulative and toxic (PBT). It penetrates and poisons the environment, seriously affects the food chain, and it doesn’t go away.

The silver pellets that come out of a broken thermometer are enough to cause damage in a child who inhales it and enough to contaminate a 20-acre lake. More than 60,000 babies born in the U.S. each year are at risk of brain damage because of exposure to unsafe levels of mercury while inside the womb.

By the time mercury contaminates fish, it is a highly toxic compound known as methylmercury. Frequent news reports now warn against eating tuna and farm-raised salmon because of the methylmercury they contain. Even low levels of this compound can cause learning disabilities, poor motor skills and shortened attention span.

The work of Brody and HCWH has prompted thousands of hospitals to phase out the use of mercury thermometers and blood-pressure devices. Most of the major pharmacy chains, including Wal Mart and Walgreen, have stopped selling mercury fever thermometers and now offer cost-comparable, safer alternatives. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics has called on doctors and parents to stop using mercury thermometers.

The successes of Charlotte Brody and Health Care Without Harm are mounting up around the world. A letter from Brody to HCWH members reported that in 2003 Na Homolce became the first hospital in the Czech Republic to switch to all PVC-free IV bags, and Glanzing Clinic in Vienna became the first PVC-free pediatric unit.

There’s no doubt that Brody is making a difference as she works to make the body burden of toxic chemicals for all people lighter.

Brody, mother of two, lives near the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia, 50 miles west of Washington, D.C. In addition to working with Health Care Without Harm and Planned Parenthood, she has served as the organizing director for the Center for Health, Environment Justice in Falls Church, Virginia, and the coordinator of the Carolina Brown Lung Association, an occupational safety and health organization focused on cotton textile workers.

For more information about Health Care Without Harm, go to www.noharm.org.

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