A DATABASE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS WITHIN HEALTHCARE

Primum non nocere

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Environment & health

Both human health and the health systems we depend on are increasingly threatened by a range of environmental crises, including climate change.

In the coming decades population health will be defined by climate change-related undernutrition, vector-borne disease, heat stress, air pollution, extreme weather events, mental illness, and conflict and migration (Watts et al. 2019).

Already overstretched health systems are also at increasing risk of supply chain disruption, resource scarcity, and infrastructure damage due to climate change (Cimprich et al. 2019).

Furthermore, the impacts other environmental crises, such as biodiversity loss, biochemical flows, land-system change, and novel entities are expected to compound those of the climate crisis (Belesova et al. 2020; Steffen et al. 2015).

Paradoxically, healthcare provision itself is a significant driver of environmental pollution, and is responsible for approximately 4.5% of global GHG emissions (Pichler et al. 2019; Watts et al. 2019).

Contrary to the first do no harm adage, healthcare-related pollution is associated with a substantial, yet hidden, health burden. Conservative estimates suggest that health sector pollutants may account for more health loss than liver cancer in the United States (Eckelman and Sherman 2018).

Health professionals and policymakers have a responsibility to help reduce the environmental burden of the system that is designed to protect health.

background

— Without immediate and concerted action today’s children face a world more than 4°C warmer than what their forebearers experienced

Jump to section:
—lifecycle assessment

—by impact category

—per capita

—funding

—contact

Measuring healthcare pollution

Assessing the environmental impacts of healthcare is the first step toward creating sustainable health systems. By identifying high impact activities and pointing toward more environmentally-friendly alternatives, impact assessments can inform policy change.

Lifecycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally-standardized approach for quantifying environmental impacts associated with the entire lifecycle of a given product, process, or service.

Despite initial research suggesting that healthcare is associated with a large environmental footprint, rigorous studies that utilize gold standard lifecycle assessment (LCA) methods are lacking.

In recent years, however, there has been a rapid uptake in the use of LCA within the health sector.

lifecycle assessment

energy production—

infrastructure—

equipment production—

transportation—

heating & ventilation—

anesthetic gases—

pharmaceuticals—

recycling and disposal—

Charts

HEALTHLCA

Jump to chart:
—cumulative case studies over time

—geographical distribution of case studies

—breakdown of studies by discipline

—environmental parameters assessed

Jump to chart:
—cumulative case studies over time

—geographical distribution of case studies

—breakdown of studies by discipline

—environmental parameters assessed

Climate impact of health systems (per capita)