What is your nursing background?
I've been an OR nurse for more than 20 years and have worked in hospitals for 30. For the past 10 years or so, I've been going to school. I got a degree in geology and a master's degree in geography, with an emphasis on resource management and environmental issues.

I never made the connection between nursing and environmentalism until I heard about Health Care Without Harm. It was like an epiphany. Here, I could utilize my expertise in health care to promote environmental responsibility-a perfect mix of my interests and expertise. Operating rooms are one of the biggest producers of waste.

How did you manage your time?
I like to be busy. I like to do a lot of things. Life is too short. I think I studied geography because it encompasses so many different fields--physical science, social science, so many different topics. It is a wonderful thing for someone like me who is a generalist, interested in all kinds of things.

How did become a nurse?
My first child was born when I was very young and I needed a good job to support my son. I already was working in the hospital as a nurses aide. My main job was to fold linens and make packs for surgery. My boss in the OR, June Gentner--a wonderful, brilliant OR nurse, the best supervisor I've ever had--told me I was smart enough to become a nurse.

While I went to nursing school I stayed in the OR. In those days they trained you on the job. Shortly after I finished school, I moved to California.

What does Health Care Without Harm do?
Our mission is to promote comprehensive pollution prevention in hospitals. To support the use of environmentally safe materials, products and technology in health care. For example, eliminating mercury from the health care environment.

Mercury is a toxic, persistent, bioaccumulative heavy metal, and it is used in many products in health care. The most obvious are thermometers and sphygmomanometers. Mercury also is found in a number of cleaning agents, lab solutions, lamps and switches. There are good alternative products now for almost every mercury product.

We also use way too much polyvinyl chloride plastic. PVC plastic creates dioxins, which also are persistent bioaccumulative toxins. They accumulate in our bodies over time and are very resistant to elimination; they don't break down for decades. Dioxin is created when PVC is manufactured and when it is incinerated. The same reasons we like plastic--it's durable, it doesn't break down--are the same things that make it a problem.

We all have a body burden of dioxin, and medical waste incineration is one of the leading sources of dioxin in our bodies. Dioxin is a carcinogen, linked to all sorts of health problems including reproductive problems and immune disorders. It is toxic in very small quantities.

What can nurses do in hospitals?
Nurses can be agents for change in their hospitals. They can find other people who are interested in these issues and form a "green team," a group of people dedicated to examining the issues. They can work on writing purchasing policies for their hospitals. They can make this a patient care issue--you don't want to contaminate your patients so that they keep coming back.

Nurses are altruistic. They don't go into nursing because they want to be rich, powerful or famous, but because they want to help people.

The idea that the health care industry can contaminate our environment or bodies is upsetting to nurses, especially those who are a little older and remember how we used to reuse our linens, our basins and a lot of other things that were easily cleaned and sterilized. Every place I've ever worked, nurses have been worried about where all this waste is going. The issue truly resonates with them.

When you factor the cost of disposal--its direct cost and its impact--into your purchasing, it becomes a whole different ballgame. What is the cost of cleaning up a mercury spill? One spill might pay for nonmercury sphygmomanometers.

At the very least, nurses could start implementing solid waste recycling. Most hospitals don't even recycle glass, aluminum and cardboard, which make up a huge percentage of the waste.

How can nurses get involved?
Health Care Without Harm offers technical help. In most states, the EPA offers technical help. There is a lot of information available on the Web. Our site is at www.noharm.org. There is information about alternative products at www.sustainablehospitals.org.

The American Nurses Association has a good pollution prevention kit for nurses at http://nursingworld.org/anp/phome.cfm. Enter pub #9811LA, the ANA Pollution Prevention Kit for nurses.