Press release of Arnika, November 20, 2003

Prague - Patients from Prague hospital Na Homolce will no longer be exposed to dangerous phthalates from PVC intravenous (IV) bags.  All hospital departments will replace PVC with safer plastics. "This is an important action in Czech health service.  It will decrease patient exposure to phthalates and will reduce use of PVC, a source of dioxins," said Lenka Maskova, leader of campaign Health Care Without PVC from the civic association Arnika. 

DEHP, the phthalate used to make PVC medical bags flexible, is a toxic chemical. "DEHP has caused harm to kidneys, livers, and male testes in animal studies," warned Ms. Maskova. Phthalates are not fixed to PVC and leach from it into solutions.

Dr. Lukas Svoboda, head of renal unit, explained the change: "We are concerned about phthalates leaching from PVC bags into infusion solutions and then directly into the patient´s body.“  Director of hospital pharmacy, Mrs. Iva Vankova, added: "Three years ago we started buying PVC-free bags.  But the initial cost of PVC-free bags prevented us from buying them for the entire hospital.  Now we have eliminated this barrier."

Na Homolce hospital is the first Czech hospital to stop using all IV bags with PVC. "IV bags made from PVC represent the greatest source of DEHP exposure in our unit,“ Dr. Svobada said. "Patients on dialysis have a high consumption of IV bags. In our unit it is around 40 bags a day." 

Another treatment resulting in high DEHP exposure is hemodialysis because the blood comes to direct contact with PVC. Dr. Kamil Sevela from Brno hospital at Saint Ann explained: „Because patients receive multiple treatments with intravenous liquids, exposure from these IV bags should not to be ignored.“

Na Homolce hospital has proven that reducing PVC use is possible in Czech hospitals.  "If one hospital starts replacing the most commonly used medical product, IV bags, we see it as way for progressive replacement of other products," said Ms. Maskova.

Notes:

The PVC-free bag is made by Baxter.  Sold under the tradename, Clear-Flex, it is a multi-layer plastic made from polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA) and polypropylene (PP).

The civic association Arnika is a member of the international coalition Health Care Without Harm (HCWH).  The goal of HCWH is to promote environmental best practices in health care. Members of HCWH are health care institutions, civic associations and interested groups from around the world. Arnika has led the campaign, Health Care Without PVC, since 2001 in the Czech Republic (see http://pvc.arnika.org).