NEWSLETTERS

• Issue #1-02 - October '02

Issue #1-02 - October '02 - Getting Started!

1. T1 reps and officers

2. Recycling Medical Equipment - put Oct. 8th on your calendar!

3. Full Circle update

4. Mug fundraiser/Earth Day 2003

5. Bulletin Board

6. RTA pass petition

7. Community Activities

8. Upcoming speeches/lectures to check out

9. Uptown Greenclub stuff

10. Container Recycling

1. T1 reps and Officers

Congratulations to our new T1 reps, Craig Conard and Dhaval Patel. They will be joining Amy Vaughn, Fasih Hameed, and myself (Jacquie Firth) as the committee organizers/officers in our quest to make Tulane Med greener.

2. Recycled Medical Equipment Project

Recycling Medical Equipment for the Developing World (REMEDY) is a program that was started at Yale-New Haven Hospital by a group of doctors in 1991. The program, which collects unused but no longer sterile equipment from hospitals and transports it to hospitals and clinics in the developing world, particularly Central America, has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception and now counts over 50 hospitals among its members. We here at Tulane are in the process of setting up a similar program with the help of Tulane Hospital and a few local doctors who have contacts in the Central American medical community.

There will be an information session on Tuesday October 8th followed by training sessions at 3pm (ish) on Wednesday October 9th and 16th (more will be scheduled if necessary. The time commitment for the training sessions and actual participation will be minimal and we are currently working on getting it approved for service learning credit. If you are interested please plan to attend both of these sessions (info and 1 training) - if you absolutely cannot make it, please contact us at cmig@tulane.edu for further information on how you can get involved. Also if you have any ideas for a snazzy acronym for the project, let us know.

3. Full Circle Pledge

Since Earth Day 2002, the Environment and Medicine Committee has been working diligently to promote the Full Circle Pledge, with the help of a summer internship grant from the Center for Bioenvironmental Research located in the JBJ. The Pledge asks that departments make it their policy to:

• Use at least 30% post-consumer recycled paper in all department printers, copiers, and copy or printing orders from all suppliers as often as economically feasible.
• Have and use a departmental paper-recycling bin for white paper only, no shredded or color paper. Please compile into one bin per department and call Housekeeping for pick-up.
• Look for ways to reduce paper waste within your department (including posting things on the web, using double-sided copying, reducing margins, font size, and line spacing etc.)

So far 14 departments have signed on the Pledge and many more are just waiting to be approached. If you are interested helping to continue this project, please contact us at cmig@tulane.edu to get involved.

4. Mug fundraiser/Earth Day

By now many of you will have seen the snazzy new mugs that the Environment and Medicine Committee has designed as the Earth Day 2003 fundraiser. While many were sold in conjunction with the AIDS Walk Tshirts, we still have many available so if you haven't already purchased one contact us and we will get one to you via the mailroom. Not only do you get a discount at most coffeeshops in town, but the proceeds from the mugs will go towards our Earth Day 2003 events, which will include both the table and hallway display from last year as well as a speaker and hopefully a community activity. If you are interested in being involved in the planning of this event, please contact us.

5. E&M Committee Bulletin Board

You may also have noticed the empty new bulletin board that has been stationed along the hallway leading to the cafeteria. This bulletin board belongs to the Environment and Medicine Committee and will soon be filled with pertinent environmental info and updates - check it and the website (www.som.tulane.edu/cmig/EnvtHealth.htm) often for info on upcoming events!

6. RTA Pass Petition

We have recently been contacted by a student at the undergraduate campus who is interested in negotiating an agreement between Tulane University and the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority that would give Tulane ID's a new identity - bus passes! For $30/yr, added directly to tuition, the Tulane student ID would be able to be used as a bus/streetcar pass - compare this to the $55/mo. that a regular monthly pass costs and you can see that this is a steal. If you are interested in helping with this project or merely in signing the petition, please contact us.

7. Community Activities

New Orleans Chapter of the Sierra Club has a weekend outing planned for Oct. 4-6th and an outdoor activities fair planned for Oct.13th - please check out their website at http://louisiana.sierraclub.org/neworleans/programs.html or contact Barbara Coman, Membership Chair, at (504) 733-0988 or bcv23@aol.com for a registration form.

8. Upcoming Speakers and Events

November 4th, 7 pm, LUCEC (and Audubon Institute and Octavia Books) will host Dr. Mark Plotkin, renowned ethnobotanist, to speak in Loyola's Roussell Hall. His topic will be "From the Spiritual to the Microbial: Rain Forest Conservation, New Jungle Medicines, and the Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria" For those of you who don't know, we actually tried to get Dr. Plotkin to come speak at our Earth Day - unfortunately we couldn't quite get the cash together - but you should check out his talk anyway, it sounds like it will be very good.

9. Uptown Greenclub stuff

The Environment and Medicine Committee is a joint effort between the Medical School's Community Medicine Interest Group and the Undegraduate Greenclub. If you are interested in more info about what the undergrads are doing, you can attend one of their meetings (generally the first Monday of the month at 7pm in the Alcee Fortier building on the uptown campus) or one of their events, about which we will try to keep you updated. Also, if you live near the campus, you may want to take advantage of the shuttle to Whole Foods on Esplanade that leaves every Thursday at 6pm from Pocket Park (right next to the University Center in the middle of campus).

10. Container Recycling

We are still working on it - we are even in contact with personnel from the State of Louisiana Office of Environmental Quality. In the meantime, please continue to place your EMPTY cans in the bin outside the medical student lounge.

Thanks for your support of and participation in Tulane's Environment and Medicine Committee - have a green October!!

Sincerely,

Tulane's Environment & Medicine Committee Leaders

cmig@tulane.edu