{"id":41123,"date":"2020-07-28T10:35:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T14:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=41123"},"modified":"2021-12-06T06:27:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T11:27:02","slug":"health-experts-call-for-reusable-ppe-to-protect-people-and-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/press-release\/41123\/health-experts-call-for-reusable-ppe-to-protect-people-and-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Health experts call for reusable PPE to protect people and planet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canada<\/strong> \u2014 Health experts from around the world today<\/strong><\/a> endorsed the use of well-made reusable masks or gloves that are properly sanitized in order to protect the environment from pollution as well as our communities from the global COVID-19 pandemic. As countries continue to face shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), the experts encouraged the general public to practice basic hygiene practices like handwashing and utilise reusable masks while leaving medical-grade and single-use PPE for healthcare and essential workers. <\/p>\n\n

Dr. Joe Vipond, emergency physician and interim president with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, said:<\/strong> \u201cIt’s important to remember, as we battle the life-threatening COVID crisis, that we also have concomitant existential issues with the plastics crisis, the extinction crisis, and the climate crisis, and that we need to be fighting all four at the same time. Which means recognizing that we can’t just ignore the single-use waste that we are generating to combat the former. Consider using soap and water instead of gloves, a reusable cloth mask instead of a disposable mask, and together we can save ourselves and the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

According to a study in Environmental Science & Technology<\/a>, the world is using an estimated 129 billion disposable masks and 65 billion disposable gloves each month during the pandemic. The study finds that not only has this led to widespread environmental contamination, it poses a significant public health risk as this waste serves as a vector for the virus. <\/p>\n\n

“Our health depends on the health of our planet’s natural resources. Single-use plastic materials are contaminating our air, water, and soil and, therefore, harming our health. Breaking free from single-use plastics is now a matter of public health.” said Dr. Saulo Delfino Barboza, associate professor of the Health & Education Program at University of Ribeirao Preto in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n

The United Nations has also raised the possibility of additional locally manufactured incinerators<\/a> to deal with the excess waste from PPE, which would impact air quality for surrounding communities. Communities of colour are disproportionately impacted by pollution, which has exacerbated their already higher rates of COVID-19<\/a> illness and death.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe cannot protect human health without a healthy environment. The hundreds of billions of throwaway plastic masks and gloves we are using come at an enormous cost, particularly for communities of color near landfills and incinerators where it is dumped or burned. We need to protect ourselves from COVID today in ways that will not endanger us to other deadly diseases in the future,\u201d said Greenpeace USA oceans campaign director John Hocevar.<\/p>\n\n

These health experts are speaking out weeks after over 130 health experts from twenty countries signed onto a statement <\/a>assuring retailers and consumers that reusable bags and containers can be used safely during COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n

-END-<\/p>\n\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The full list of quotes by health experts on PPE can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Photos of PPE waste in the US can be found here<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Photos of PPE waste in Italy can be found here<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace International\u2019s toolkit on reusable masks can be found here<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Contact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Loujain Kurdi, Greenpeace Canada, loujain.kurdi@gmail.com,<\/a> 514-577-6657<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t10 tips to protect yourself against coronavirus while caring for the planet\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Free Guide: Eco tips to protect against COVID-19<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Take action\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health experts from around the world today endorsed the use of well-made reusable masks or gloves that are properly sanitized in order to protect the environment from pollution as well as our communities from the global COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":41124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,28,31,71],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-41123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-sustainably","tag-consumption","tag-health","tag-oceans","tag-plastic","p4-page-type-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41123"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51249,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41123\/revisions\/51249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41123"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=41123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}