[Greenbuilding] "Reduce – Reuse – Recycle – the Dead" & Probe: Many medical devices not safety-tested

[Carmine Vasile]

Erin: After reading this Newsday "Probe: Many medical devices not safety-tested" & Metal hips: Missed alarms:  http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/consumer-reports-magazine/May-2012/medical-devices.html I thought about our E-Waste correspondence and my son, who was cremated with his artificial hip in August of 2008. So I searched the Web to find two disturbing stories; one more heinous than the next that helps why thousands of DePuy hips have failed in a year or so and why their alloys could not meet ASTM standards; especially if radioactive waste is used to please Uncle Sam: (a) "Reduce – Reuse – Recycle – the Dead"  & (b) "Nuclear Waste Recyclers Target Consumer Products” [1], [2]    The 1st reports “Let us all say it together: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. Now add: Dead bodies. It’s true. Shocking, but true…Denmark’s crematorium association has revealed its profitable sideline in recycling metal parts salvaged from the dead. Burnt bodies leave knee or hip replacements that can be recycled as scrap metal, says Allan Vest, the association’s chairman. Since 2006 the country’s 31 crematoriums have earned DKr 77,762 ($15,000) from 4,810kg of salvaged metal sold to a Dutch recycler…Alas, America is a bit behind both Europe and the UK when it comes to implant recycling but at least one US company in Detroit, MI is making a go of it: “Implant Recycling”  I like to imagine that Detroit’s economic re-birth will start because of postmortem recycling.”     The 2nd reports: “NEW YORK - Orthodontists could soon be giving their patients more than they bargained for with their brand new braces: a mouthful of radioactive waste. Under a Department of Energy plan, braces aren't the only product which could contain radioactive waste. Zippers, lawn chairs, hip replacements and countless other consumer products could include trace amounts of waste taken from nuclear reactors or weapons complexes and recycled into scrap metal. The Department of Energy (DOE) sees the recycling as a way to clean up waste at decommissioned nuclear plants and weapons facilities, but environmental groups call the idea ridiculous. "It's hard to imagine a nuclear enterprise more tone deaf to public concerns or a more cockamamie scheme than taking radioactive waste and disposing of it in consumer products," said Dan Hirsch, president of nuclear watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap.”  [1] The Economist (8-6-09) @ http://deathreferencedesk.org/2009/08/13/reduce-reuse-recycle-the-dead/  [2] Allyce Bess, 8-28-10 @ http://www.rense.com/general13/waste.htm 

Carmine

    
 		 	   		  
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