Blood Pressure & Health

Replace Mercury Blood Pressure Monitors: Sphygmomanometers.

The ongoing campaign to eliminate mercury from medical devices continues to expand and now the challenge has become global. A new campaign hopes to encourage greater use of digital thermometers to lower the toxic risks associated with mercury models.

A combination of automatic blood pressure monitors that have been validated by impartial third parties and a growing concern for the manual inaccuracies of listening for a pulse with a stethoscope when measuring blood pressure with mercury blood pressure monitors has promoted increased production of accurate, affordable, mercury-free medical devices especially monitors for home users.

The British Hypertension Society produces a list of validated machine suitable for both clinical and home use.  Soon all the monitors on this list will be automatic digital blood pressure monitors – available from medical supply specialist such as Medisave who already only offer digital and aneroid monitors on their web site.

Switch to Digital Thermometers for Clinical and Home Use

Mercury in other medical instruments.

A global partnership coordinated by the World Health Authority has announced that it plans to eradicate mercury from health care organisations with an initial target of replacing over seventy % of all mercury blood pressure monitors in the next decade.

In the US and Europe, regulations and efforts by concerned pressure groups have resulted many hospitals to stop using medical devices that contain mercury.

The WHO/Health Care Without Harm partnership focuses solely on thermometers and sphygmomanometers, which are widely used and have viable alternatives.

One of the most common  medical instruments that contains mercury is the thermometer.

Mercury thermometers are still widely used throughout the world.  1000′s of thermometers  break over the course of a year in hospitals, releasing mercury, a potent toxin that spreads quickly.

Digital thermometers are both accurate and easy to use so the resistance to changing from mercury thermometers should be small. New digital thermometers are however more expensive.

It is forecast that as the quantities produced increases, the costs will fall. and it is hoped that once hospitals calculate the cost of mercury thermometer breakage including the proper cleaning up after the breaks, the switch becomes a minor cost issue.

Encouraging people to invest in digital thermometers for home use is still a challenge in the developing world, but as with the old style blood pressure monitors mercury thermometers are being phased out so they are harder to find.

How to tell if a thermometer contains mercury

If a thermometer has a silver bulb, it contains mercury; if the bulb is any other color, it is mercury-free.

You can see a wide selection of clinically approved digital thermometers and medical thermometers here.

For a full explanation of the impact of mercury please see this article – http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/push-to-replace-mercury-thermometers-is-going-global

Filed under: Monitors by admin - No Comments →

Have a happy, hearty Christmas feast!

Christmas is a time of year for indulging in good food and drink with family and friends.  Here are some ways you can have a hearty, healthy and happy celebration to remember.

Christmas lunch can be a very nutritious meal – in theory, it contains all the right ingredients, from plenty of vegetables to low-fat turkey meat. In practice, the issue is the sheer amounts we tend to eat in one go – in fact many of us will eat up to 6,000 calories on Christmas Day. That’s the daily allowance for three women or two and a half men!

With a few little changes here and there you can cut down on the calories, and still have a delicious, indulgent Christmas dinner. Here are some tips to give you some ideas:

Filed under: healthy eating by admin - No Comments →