Green Health Care Pioneer Gary Cohen, Founder and President of Health Care Without Harm, Named 2011 Game Changer by Huffington Post

Social Entrepreneur Named in "Healthy Living" Category

RESTON, Va., Oct. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm, has been named a 2011 Game Changer by the Huffington Post.  Cohen was named a Game Changer in the "Healthy Living" category for his work on greening hospitals. 

HuffPost's Game Changers series celebrates 100 innovators, visionaries, and leaders in 12 categories who, whether working in the spotlight or under the radar, are changing how we look at the world and the way we live in it. According to Huffington Post, "We salute them for their willingness to take risks and question the status quo."

The Huffington Post noted that Gary Cohen started Health Care Without Harm, and provided background information:

"Health Care Without Harm . . . strives to create a more sustainable, ecological environment -- at lower costs -- in hospitals and clinics across the world. The good news is that the health care sector can play a leading role in solving these problems.  Due to its massive buying power, and its mission-driven interest in preventing disease, the health care sector can help shift the entire economy toward sustainable, safer products and practices"

Gary Cohen is known for his advocacy on reducing chemical and other environmental contaminants that harm public health.  "It's becoming increasingly difficult to support healthy people on a sick planet," said Cohen. "The epidemic of chronic disease that's overwhelming the health care sector is linked to environmental exposures as well as socioeconomic factors, such as poverty and poor living conditions. What we're trying to do is connect environment and health in order to move toward a disease-prevention agenda for health care."

Cohen was named a Social Entrepreneur by the Skoll Foundation in 2010.  To learn more about Health Care Without Harm and Gary's work, see the Skoll video, "Gary Cohen, an Uncommon Hero."  To see how far-reaching Gary's work has become, watch "A Healing Garden Grows in Bhopal."  Gary was also instrumental in the founding of Practice Greenhealth and the Healthier Hospitals Initiative.

HCWH is an international coalition of more than 508 organizations in 53 countries, working to transform the health care industry worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH, see www.noharm.org

SOURCE Health Care Without Harm