IMSS prioritizes water management, waste disposal, sustainable infrastructure and training for healthcare personnel / @Tu_IMSS >>>

#IMSS.- As part of its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and combating climate change, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) is currently prioritizing appropriate water management, measurement of greenhouse gases, elimination of healthcare waste, sustainable energy services and infrastructure, as well as training for healthcare personnel at all its facilities.

During the “II International Congress on Climate Change and Health Research”, held in the “Benito Coquet” Auditorium of the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS), Dr. Sandra Elizondo Argueta, head of the medical area in the Coordination of Special Health Projects of the Medical Benefits Directorate (DPM) of the IMSS, explained that the global climate crisis is also a health crisis, so it is important for the health sector to take the necessary actions to reduce atmospheric emissions.

“Hospitals, health facilities are the ones that work 24/7 for 365, in cases of emergency or disaster they are the ones that are most needed, we need them to be working at 100 percent. But this intense activity leads us to increase their carbon footprint and therefore they are contributing to climate change,” she said.

The specialist led the presentation “Climate Change and Health in Mexico: route of action 2024-2030”, in which she pointed out that among the Social Security’s actions in this area are the implementation of programs such as Zero Waste, the creation of Ecological-Educational Gardens and, in February 2023, the director general of the IMSS, Zoé Robledo, presented the plan for Safe, Sustainable, Inclusive and Health-Safe Hospitals, “all these strategies work in an integral way. Where we see the multi-threat approach”.

He stressed the importance of environmental and health education, in order to know and prevent the indirect effects that climate change generates on health, from respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, food contamination, to mental affectations.

“It is necessary to study how these changes will affect us in the future and also put them on the agenda. Like diabetes, hypertension, diseases that if we do not have them in good control in the patient, also generate a carbon footprint, because they require more resources that generate more waste. And this is a chain that we must begin to investigate,” he said.

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