by Barb

This morning I was laying still at the hospital during my tests in radiology.  I had a few random thoughts about plastic based on a my observations and inability to move for 40 minutes.

• The hospital uses a lot of plastic and nothing seems to be recycled.
  • the medical ID card I needed at check-in
  • the “bracelet” they put on you
  • the IV tubing and syringes to inject the chemicals for my test
  • how much of the plastic chemicals were leached from the tubing and syringe before injection into my body??
  • the EKG leads
  • shouldn’t the medical industry figure out a way to repurpose/recycle some of these “disposable” items??
  • Are they worried about disease transmission if they recycle?  If I remember correctly, to “melt” the plastics requires a much higher temperature than anything could live.

• The scanning machine was basically all plastic.  I’m sure there was some metal in there somewhere but I couldn’t see it.

• Food and Beverages
  • The mandatory cookies I had to eat were wrapped in plastic
  • The plastic beverage cup I purchased to wash down the cookies was plastic.
  • Not sure which annoyed me more – being told to eat cookies for breakfast or having to pay for a beverage to go with it.  There wasn’t a drinking fountain anywhere to be seen!
  • Did drinking fountains become obsolete in public?  I have many at my work site, but rarely look for them elsewhere.
  • Have the hospitals eliminated them to prevent the spread of diseases??
  • My required water just before the test was in a large (maybe 32 oz) styrofoam.  They filled it about a quarter of the way up.  I just added it to the iced tea I purchased at the coffee corner.
  • I thought styrofoam was worse than other plastics – guess I need to do some research.

• Papers – now here is the irony!
  • They had me read the required warnings in a plastic wrapped paper.
  • I signed on a small pad connected to the computer
  • I wasn’t given a copy.  When I asked for one “we are trying to cut down on our paper usage to save the environment.”
  • So they won’t give me a copy for “environmental” reasons but they don’t recycle the plastics???

OK rant over!