Music video boosts toxics-free hospitals drive
‘Safeguarding public health must never come at the expense of our environment.’
STAFF at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City audit hospital waste as part of the Philippine Healthcare and Mercury Waste Management Project.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BAN TOXICS
The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-EMB) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization has intensified its campaign against toxic hospital waste through a dance video raising awareness on the health hazard.
The music video featuring the campaign mascot Nurse Susie was simultaneously launched in six partner hospitals in different regions, namely Cagayan Valley Medical Center, Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Eastern Visayas Medical Center, Northern Mindanao Medical Center, Southern Philippines Medical Center and CARAGA Regional Hospital.
The video highlights the campaign’s 4Cs slogan — change old habits, cut plastics, commit to reuse, and champion sustainability — encouraging healthcare workers, hospital clients, and the general public to adopt practical measures such as proper waste segregation, reducing plastics, choosing reusable alternatives, and avoiding waste burning.
Personnel from the DENR-EMB central office and its regional offices, alongside healthcare workers from the project’s partner hospitals.
The music titled “Nurse Susie para sa Ospital na Toxics-Free” was produced by the Philippine Healthcare and Mercury Wastes Management Project (HCWM Project) and launched to mark Environmental Awareness Month.
“Safeguarding public health must never come at the expense of our environment. Improper healthcare waste disposal and the open burning of plastics release dangerous persistent organic pollutants that threaten our communities and ecosystems,” EMB director Michael Drake P. Matias said.
“Through our joint leadership in the HCWM Project, the EMB is driving systemic change. Initiatives like the ‘Nurse Susie’ campaign prove that environmental compliance, hazardous waste reduction, and sustainability can be seamlessly embedded into our healthcare system through creative public engagement and steadfast multi-sectoral collaboration.”