"The medical industry is the second largest part of the Gross National Product for the entire American culture, yet there has been little accomplished in regards to the many environmental issues surrounding medicine itself," says Kreisberg.In order to promote the concept of sustainable medicine, Kreisberg has founded the Teleoisis Institute, "a not-for-profit organization, in which an ongoing discussion occurs, and where resources for ‘greening’ America's healthcare system are shared among those who practice different forms of medicine."
Kreisberg believes that, "If we’re going to create a sustainable culture, we’ll need healthcare to join in to the general 'greening' of our world." Within the medical community, he explains that, in particular, there is a serious problem concerning toxic waste. Citing our reliance on pharmaceutical drugs as the major culprit, due to the amount of waste they generate, the avid environmentalist poses the question, "Where do drugs come from and where do they go?"
"When dealing with the waste stream, you have to realize that hormones and antibiotics are washed back into our oceans, our animals, and our food products," Kreisberg explains. "Pharmaceuticals present a very high cost to us; they end up back in our environment, or in our bodies. Did you know that the average baby being born in the United States right now is being born with over 200 chemicals in their system?"
I'll be honest -- I've never thought much about the environmental impact of our health care system. Clearly, it's an issue that deserves attention. Kreisberg is a chiropracter, and I wonder if the alternative medical community will be more likely to find such concepts appealing, while the more traditional medical community resists such efforts (at least initially). Thoughts?
Categories: medicine, health care, sustainable, ecological
