Four of the region's hospital and health care facilities have agreed to spend at least the next month -- until Earth Day -- educating visitors and staff about bottled water and trying to wean them off of disposable plastic and onto the tap.
The Christiana Care Health System plans to serve water in pitchers at meetings and to encourage its staff to use ice and water machines in the cafeteria. Of course, that leaves open the question of what kind of glasses the water will be in -- disposable? -- but moving on...
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is giving a 10 percent meal discount to anyone who has a reusable water bottle on their tray on Wednesdays, which have been dubbed "Water Wednesdays."
At Abington Hospital and Holy Redeemer Hospital, information will be posted about the health and environmental effects of bottled water. Holy Redeemer is also touting the work of the religious order's work to build water wells in Tanzania.
The push is being coordinated by Women’s Health & Environment Network (WHEN), a local non-profit organization working on reducing environmental impacts in hospitals. The group is concerned about plastic waste, water shortages and the quality of bottled water. It has a compendium of facts and sources here. (Scroll down to "bottled water facts.")
GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science.
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