Photo By Douglas Stutz | Making the stretch…Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Danny Varath, x-ray technician...... read more read more
In the week leading up to this year’s commemoration of the 51st Earth Day, Naval Hospital Bremerton’s (NHB) Facilities Management received an admiring note from a contributing partner in environmental stewardship.
That same legacy of caring for the environment was on display April 22, 2021, with the command’s First Class Petty Officer Association organizing a base-wide cleanup effort.
Earth Day was founded in 1970 as a day of education about environmental issues. This theme this year is ‘Restore Our Earth,’ which NHB has consistently done by focusing on a number of programs – recycling, replacing and reusing – that actively supports and encourages a culture of environmental stewardship throughout the command and community.
“NHB achieves sustainable goals in improving our environmental foot print by reducing the volume of waste generated and continual improvement in reduction of toxic chemicals use,” said Ramon Calantas, Environmental Division environmental protection specialist.
NHB has a robust waste reduction program to collect and return what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies as ‘single used devices’ from the operating room. Instead of disposing of such devices as arthroscopic wands and shavers, laparoscopic instruments, and ultrasonic scalpels as medical waste, they are now being recycled at a rate of almost one ton per fiscal year.
According to Calantas, NHB also recycled approximately 250 pounds in the last two years of various non-invasive medical devices such as compression sleeves, pneumatic tourniquet cuffs, and ECG leads and cables. At one point in time, those items – and more - were disposed of as solid waste, with associated costs and environmental impact.
NHB’s Facilities Engineering Division’s Solid Waste Diversion water foundation project has annually reduced the use of disposable plastic drinking water bottles. Installed bottle fillers in 14 drinking fountains are reaping ecofriendly benefits. Just one filler can dispense the equivalent of almost 200 bottles of water in one work week, in theory keeping those 200 bottles out of recycle bins, trash cans and landfills.
Along with the command-and-corporate initiatives to recycle, reprocess and recover, there has also been creative individual energy in helping care for the environment.
The blue muslin wrap used as garments in NHB’s Main Operating Room (OR) used to be destined for a landfill after being discarded. The wraps are made of polypropylene, a form of cloth-like plastic which is water resistant, insect resistant, and retains heat. Yet once the sterilized blue wrap is worn, it can’t be reused due to stringent sterilization standards at NHB and manufacture guidelines.
Due to the efforts of Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Cozzette Baldwin, a surgical technologist, the wrap is now being recycled and reused by being made into sleeping pads and tote bags to donate in helping those less fortunate.
That initiative was also on display for Earth Day, as approximately 40 staff members showed up to canvass and spruce up the hospital’s grounds.
The commemoration of Earth Day will wrap up with a two-mile fun run where all contestants will receive finisher seeds to plant.
“Every step you take means a lot,” stated Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Preston J. Cioffi.
| Date Taken: | 04.22.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2021 10:33 |
| Story ID: | 394743 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WA, US |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Earth Day Awareness a Command-Wide Commemoration at NHB/NMRTC Bremerton, by Douglas Stutz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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