Green Dentistry Association sets goal of 10,000 Pledges
Between World Water Day & Earth Day 2011
Berkeley, CA (March 22, 2011) – The Eco-Dentistry Association™ (EDA), an international membership association formed to promote environmentally sound practices in dentistry, recently announced its goal of obtaining 10,000 pledges for its “Save 90 a Day!” campaign by Earth Day, observed on April 22. The campaign drive will officially launch on World Water Day, Tuesday, March 22.
The “Save 90 a Day!” campaign encourages dental patients to turn off the water while they brush their teeth, saving an estimated 90 glasses of water a day, per person. Joining the campaign is free, no special equipment is required, and anyone with access to a computer can participate.
“Brushing your teeth twice a day for the recommended two minutes each time can waste up to 90 glasses of water per person, per day,” remarked Ina Pockrass, co-founder of the Eco-Dentistry Association. “By pledging to ‘Save 90 a Day!’ and encouraging others to do the same, we can create a major positive impact on conserving water, one of the Earth’s most precious resources and one without which we couldn’t practice modern dentistry.”
The EDA currently promotes the “Save 90 A Day!” campaign through dental offices, encouraging dental hygienists to include this simple tip and the campaign pledge in their oral home care instructions. “Whether for personal health or planetary health, it’s the little things we do every day that add up,” says Susan Beck, the EDA’s Director. “This year’s theme for the UN’s World Water Day is Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge. Every second, the urban population grows by two people. That represents an additional 11 gallons of water added to the urban water burden every second, just for teeth brushing. Our goal of 10,000 pledges translates to the conservation of 900,000 glasses of water, the equivalent of almost 3 swimming pools of water per day that can be used for sanitation, cooking, and growing food to support urban populations.”
The EDA is reaching out to like-minded organizations, such as Women’s Earth Alliance, to support its “Save 90 A Day!” campaign drive, making it easy for people to pledge online with a simple “LIKE” on the “Save 90” Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Save90. Participants can sign the full pledge on the EDA website at www.ecodentistry.org. The EDA is also encouraging dental practices and other businesses to post a linkable “Save 90 A Day!” logo to their websites to help achieve the 10,000 pledge goal.
The campaign begins on World Water Day, March 22, 2011, and runs through Earth Day, April 22, 2011. “When we reach our goal, the EDA will make a contribution to ‘WATERisLIFE,’ an organization providing personal water filtration devices to the people of Japan at this time of extraordinary need,” said Pockrass.
Join the campaign by simply visiting the EDA’s “Save 90 A Day!” Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Save90 and clicking the “Like” option, or log onto www.ecodentistry.org for the full text of the pledge.
About World Water Day
The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.
For more information, visit www.worldwaterday.org.
About WATERisLIFE
The mission of WATERisLIFE is to provide life-giving water solutions. They provide both short-term temporary and long-term sustainable water solutions in developing countries. The WATERisLIFE Straw costs about $10 per straw and is a small, portable filtration device that provides pure, clean drinking water whenever it is immersed into a water source (just like a normal straw). For more about WATERisLIFE, visit www.waterislife.com.
About the Eco-Dentistry Association™
The EDA is an educational membership organization that provides standards, best practices, and certification for green dental offices, and offers the public access to dental professionals that share their values of wellness and environmental stewardship. More information can be found at www.ecodentistry.org.
