Health Care Without Harm gets it wrong again!
Activist group continues to provide misleading information
An American activist group, Health Care Without Harm, which claims to be campaigning for environmentally responsible health care, continues to make false and misleading claims about the use of phthalate plasticisers in PVC medical devices.
HCWH Report on "Aggregate Exposures to Phthalates in Humans" (July 2002)
And what they claimed in 2001 ...
In a press release dated March 22, 2001 the group claims that on March 20 the Environment Committee of the European Parliament approved a document on the impacts of PVC which "includes a recommendation that phthalates be phased out of medical devices". This is not true.
The exact wording of the amendment adopted by members of the Environment Committee is: "Suggests that the Commission and the PVC industry, taking also into account the current studies, should look into the possibility of fixing objectives for reduction of the use of phthalates, particularly in medical equipment."
In other words, the Environment Committee is saying that it believes that if the assessments currently being undertaken by the EU authorities show reason to do so, the European Commission and industry should look at the possibility of reducing phthalates in medical applications. This is clearly not the same as "a recommendation that phthalates be phased out of medical devices" as stated by HCWH.
Phthalate plasticisers have been used to soften PVC in medical devices for more than 40 years without a single known case of anyone having been harmed as a result. To the contrary, such medical devices save thousands of lives and increase the comfort and safety of millions of patients every year. No other material meets all the vital performance qualities demanded by health professionals and at such affordable prices.
|
