Biomedical Research Goes Green

Voluntary standards for "greening" the bio-medical research industry were the focus of a 1-2 November 1999 conference held at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The conference was organized by the National Association of Physicians for the Environment (NAPE), the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, the NIEHS, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and some 60 other sponsors. NIEHS director Kenneth Olden described the conference-attended by physicians, education specialists, federal scientists and managers, and industry and academic professionals-as a triggering event that should catalyze worldwide efforts to reduce waste and increase energy efficiency within the biomedical community. In addition, training in green research will have a major impact as postdoctoral students begin to move into the industry. Although the biomedical research community produces less than 0.1% of all the dangerous wastes regulated by the EPA, some biomedical wastes such as mercury from fluorescent lights, dioxin, chemical reagents, the cadmium in red biohaz-ardous waste bags, infectious wastes, and di(2-ethylhexyl) phtha-late leaching from the polyvinyl chloride plastics in tubing can persist in the environment and are hazardous to human health. Moreover, bio-medical laboratories use five times more energy and water per square foot, on average, than typical office spaces, said speaker Romulo L. Diaz, Jr., an assistant administrator at the EPA. Some scientists believe that all that fossil fuel use may contribute to global warming , ultimately affecting human health in a negative way, Diaz said. A legislative push by Representative John E. Porter (R-Illinois) to increase bio-medical research funding by 15% annually over the next three years has raised the possibility of tighter environmental controls to counteract the resulting increase in bio-medical research projects. Other helpful measures to prevent excess waste include improved biomedical facility design, laboratory substitutions, scaled-down experiments , and recycling of reagents. NIH environmental health specialist Edward H. Rau said that training efforts at the NIH, for instance, effectively cut radioactive waste from a high of 2,000 liters per month in the early 1990s to about 200 liters monthly today. In the coming months, committees established by conference participants will develop an online clearinghouse of "environmental best practices" for researchers and laboratory managers, to be housed at the NAPE Web site deputy director of the NIEHS, said that online tracking of environmental regulations affecting the biomedical research community should also be considered. Conference participants also will push for research focusing on biomedical waste disposal …