Washington DC — Health experts from around the world today endorsed the use of well-made reusable masks or gloves that are properly sanitized in order to protect the environment from pollution, as well as our communities from the global COVID-19 pandemic. As countries continue to face shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), the experts encouraged the general public to practice basic hygiene practices like handwashing and utilize reusable masks while leaving medical-grade and single-use PPE for healthcare and essential workers.
“The general public should be using reusable face masks and performing routine laundering at home,” said Dr. Jodi Sherman, associate professor of anesthesiology and epidemiology and director of the program on healthcare environmental sustainability at Yale University. “It is unnecessary for personal safety, and harmful to planetary health to use disposable gloves for shopping. Hand sanitizer or soap and water are both safe and effective.”
According to a study in Environmental Science & Technology, the world is using an estimated 129 billion disposable masks and 65 billion disposable gloves each month during the pandemic. The study finds that not only has this led to widespread environmental contamination, it poses a significant public health risk as this waste serves as a vector for the virus.
“While the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic has overshadowed our immediate environmental concerns, we cannot discount the existing research associating exposures to the myriad of plastic chemicals with adverse health outcomes such as obesity, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and neurodevelopmental concerns,” said Dr. Lori Hoepner, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. “The increased reliance on single-use plastics will result in increased exposure to these chemicals, increased plastic waste, and an amplification of the existing cyclical impact on ecology and human health. Unless society can unite to stem the tide of increased plastic use and promote safe reusable options, the unintended consequences of single-use plastic may continue to fall on vulnerable populations and exacerbate existing health disparities. As we emerge from the shockwaves of COVID-19 and we become better informed, society must re-commit itself to the reduction of plastic use in favor of reusable materials, particularly in consumer goods, but also by actively seeking safe reusable alternatives to plastic for proper personal protection from COVID-19.”
The United Nations has also raised the possibility of additional locally manufactured incinerators to deal with the excess waste from PPE, which would impact air quality for surrounding communities. Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by pollution, which has exacerbated their already higher rates of COVID-19 illness and death.
“Environmental racism is part of the reason Black and Brown people are at the highest risk of illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Nate Horwitz-Willis, assistant professor of public health and coordinator of public health practice at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. “The hope to nurture with nature in communities of color is disproportionately eroded by institutional racial injustice, as is access to education, healthy food, clean air and water, and healthcare. Once the pandemic is over, it will be staggering to see the environment and public health in Black and Brown communities further degraded by contaminated PPE in our neighborhoods coupled with the lack of access to sanitary healthy spaces and places.”
The health experts are speaking out weeks after over 130 health experts from twenty countries signed onto a statement assuring retailers and consumers that reusable bags and containers can be used safely during COVID-19.
“We cannot protect human health without a healthy environment,” said Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar. “The hundreds of billions of throwaway plastic masks and gloves we are using come at an enormous cost, particularly for communities of color near landfills and incinerators where it is dumped or burned. We need to protect ourselves from COVID today in ways that will not endanger us to other deadly diseases in the future.”
The full list of quotes by health experts on PPE can be found here.
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Notes
Photos of PPE waste in the US can be found here
Photos of PPE waste in Italy can be found here
Greenpeace International’s toolkit on reusable masks can be found here
Contact
Perry Wheeler, Greenpeace USA Seniors Communications Specialist: +301-675-8766, [email protected]
Capucine Dayen, Greenpeace USA Global Comms Lead for Plastics: +33 647 971 819, [email protected]
Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]
