Earth Angels: The Caregiver

The healthcare industry needed to clean up its act, and Gary Cohen helped them do it.

(Photo by Tanit Sakakini)

A longtime environmental health activist, Gary Cohen was used to taking on powerful companies. But just over a decade ago, when the Environmental Protection Agency singled out medical-waste incinerators as among the chief sources of cancer-causing dioxin emissions, he saw it as a phenomenal opportunity to work with - not against - an influential industry in a unique position. "The healthcare industry is based on ethics," he says. "People take this Hippocratic oath to do no harm. That means they have to do whatever they can to eliminate their ecological footprint so as to not contribute to human disease. No other sector of the economy has that ethical mandate."

When Cohen, 51, who lives in Jamaica Plain, cofounded Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) in 1996, there were more than 4,000 medical-waste incinerators across the United States; today, there are fewer than 100. Back then, mercury thermometers were the standard; today, they are obsolete. The group and its member organizations - hospitals and healthcare providers all over the world - have leveraged massive buying power to force medical-equipment producers to develop cleaner machines, accessories, and practices. In addition, the most engaged member hospitals are adopting practices that include building with environmentally friendly construction materials, cooking with organic and locally sourced ingredients, cleaning with green products, and treating patients with PVC-free equipment. Brigham and Women's is one of them. "With their broad range of initiatives, HCWH is truly committed to educating the healthcare industry toward building facilities and changing their operations in a way to help improve the health of their patients, make a healthier work environment for their employees, and maintain healthy neighborhoods and communities," says Arthur Mombourquette, a vice president at the hospital. "They are the ones leading the charge."

Cohen says that this is just the beginning. "Healthcare is 16 percent of the GNP, and it may go up to 20 percent of the economy over the next 10 years. Because it is so huge, it can be a leader in showing the rest of the country how to make a transformation."