加里-科恩 环境健康倡导者

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Gary Cohen
Environmental Health Advocate | Class of 2015
Spurring environmental responsibility among health care providers and repositioning health care institutional practice around the broader challenges of sustainability, climate change, and community health.


Portrait of Gary Cohen
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Title
Environmental Health Advocate
Affiliation
Health Care Without Harm
Location
Reston, Virginia
Age
59 at time of award
Area of Focus
Health Policy, Environment and Climate Change
Website
Health Care Without Harm
Practice Greenhealth
Social
Twitter: Health Care Without Harm
Published September 29, 2015
ABOUT GARY'S WORK
Gary Cohen is a social entrepreneur and activist spurring environmental responsibility in health care both in the United States and abroad. In 1996, he co-founded Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), initially a grassroots cooperative, to bring attention to the fact that American hospitals had been major contributors to environmental pollution and had been largely ignoring the damage to local communities and environments caused by extensive use of harmful chemicals in medical devices, toxic cleaning agents, reliance on fossil fuels, and disposal of waste via incineration. Cohen has led a paradigm shift in the perceived responsibility of health care providers, from a narrow, patient-centered duty of service regarding individual health to a broader obligation to also “do no harm” to surrounding communities, their residents, and the global environment.

At first, Cohen focused on one toxin or waste byproduct at a time. HCWH’s campaign against the use of mercury, a highly toxic neurotoxin once ubiquitous in thermometers and other medical devices, led to its virtual elimination in the United States and ultimately a global treaty phasing out its use by 2020. HCWH is also credited with playing a leading role in reducing the number of carcinogenic-emitting waste incinerators in the United States from 5,600 in the late 1990s to fewer than 70 in 2006. Since its founding, HCWH has grown to comprise thousands of hospitals and healthcare partners in more than 50 countries. In proposing practical, economically viable solutions, Cohen has achieved remarkable success in galvanizing a sense of social responsibility among hospitals and health care conglomerates and spearheading voluntary (rather than through legal or judicial mandates) adoption of safer practices.

He has since expanded HCWH’s mission to engage environmental scientists, medical professionals, and institutional leadership around the broader challenges of sustainability, climate change, and community health. To that end, he has also founded or co-founded other organizations, including the Healthy Hospitals Initiative, a data-driven platform that guides hospitals in purchasing safer chemicals and healthy food and implementing energy efficient technologies, and Practice Greenhealth, a U.S.­-based membership organization for hospital systems to share best practices, information, and tools for environmentally responsible patient safety and care. In these ongoing strategic collaborations, Cohen is repositioning environmentally conscious health care as prudent, cost-effective, and easily within reach.

BIOGRAPHY
Gary Cohen received a B.A. (1978) from Clark University and studied at the University of California at Berkeley (1983–1984). He served as executive director of the National Toxics Campaign Fund (1989–1993) and co-founded the Military Toxics Project (1991–1994), before co-founding Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) in 1996. He currently serves as president of Health Care Without Harm and its membership affiliate, Practice Greenhealth.



加里-科恩
环境健康倡导者｜2015级
促使医疗机构承担环境责任，并围绕可持续发展、气候变化和社区健康等更广泛的挑战重新定位医疗机构的做法。


加里-科恩的画像
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标题
环境健康倡导者
工作单位
无害的医疗服务
工作地点
弗吉尼亚州雷斯顿
年龄
获奖时为59岁
关注领域
卫生政策, 环境和气候变化
网站
无伤害的医疗服务
绿色健康的实践
社交网络
推特。健康无害
发表于2015年9月29日
关于加里的工作
加里-科恩是一位社会企业家和活动家，他在美国和国外的医疗保健领域都推动了环境责任。1996年，他共同创立了 "无害医疗"（HCWH），最初是一个基层合作组织，目的是让人们注意到美国医院是环境污染的主要贡献者，并且在很大程度上忽视了在医疗设备中广泛使用有害化学物质、有毒清洁剂、对化石燃料的依赖以及通过焚烧处理废物对当地社区和环境造成的损害。科恩领导了医疗服务提供者责任的范式转变，从狭隘的、以病人为中心的个人健康服务义务转变为对周围社区、居民和全球环境 "不造成伤害 "的更广泛义务。

起初，科恩一次只关注一种毒素或废物副产品。HCWH反对使用汞的运动，这种剧毒的神经毒素曾经在温度计和其他医疗设备中无处不在，导致其在美国几乎被消除，并最终形成了一个全球条约，在2020年之前逐步淘汰其使用。在减少美国致癌物排放的废物焚化炉的数量方面，HCWH也被认为发挥了主导作用，从20世纪90年代末的5,600个减少到2006年的不到70个。自成立以来，HCWH已经发展到包括50多个国家的数千家医院和医疗合作伙伴。在提出实用的、经济上可行的解决方案时，科恩在激发医院和医疗集团的社会责任感以及带头自愿（而不是通过法律或司法强制）采用更安全的做法方面取得了显著的成功。

此后，他扩大了HCWH的使命，使环境科学家、医学专家和机构领导参与到可持续发展、气候变化和社区健康等更广泛的挑战中。为此，他还创立或共同创立了其他组织，包括健康医院倡议，这是一个数据驱动的平台，指导医院购买更安全的化学品和健康食品，并实施节能技术，以及实践绿色健康，这是一个基于美国的医院系统会员组织，分享最佳实践、信息和工具，以实现对环境负责的病人安全和护理。在这些正在进行的战略合作中，科恩正在将具有环境意识的医疗保健重新定位为审慎的、具有成本效益的和容易实现的。

个人简历
加里-科恩在克拉克大学获得学士学位（1978年），并在加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校学习（1983-1984年）。他曾担任国家有毒物质运动基金的执行董事（1989-1993），并共同创立了军事有毒物质项目（1991-1994），然后于1996年共同创立了无害健康护理（HCWH）。目前，他担任 "无害医疗 "及其会员联盟 "实践绿色健康 "的主席。