The health care system is an unexpectedly large source of emissions, representing an estimated 8.5% of the U.S.'s carbon footprint. One of the biggest culprits are operating rooms, responsible for a whopping 70% of a hospital's waste, and up to six times as much carbon as the rest of the health system. So what's being done about it? One easy fix is switching the type of anesthesia a hospital uses. “When you look at operating rooms and surgical waste, the anesthetic component contributes around 50-60% of all emissions,” Dr. Mehul Raval, professor of surgery at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, told Sarah Sax, reporting for TIME. That's because only a small percentage of anesthetic gasses are actually metabolized by patients—the majority is exhaled as waste gas and released back into the atmosphere. To tackle this, hospitals in Europe and the U.S. are working to eliminate the use of desflurane, one of the most commonly used inhalation anesthetics. Earlier this year, Scotland became the first country to ban desflurane. The gas has a global warming potential 2,500 times greater than carbon dioxide, and persists in the atmosphere for 14 years. As Sarah explains, swapping out one bottle of desflurane for another common anesthetic, sevoflurane, is the carbon equivalent of driving a passenger car 2,200 miles versus 122 miles. READ THE REST |
