Financial and Environmental Costs of Reusable and Single-Use Anaesthetic Equipment

McGain, Forbes; Story, David A; Lim, Terence; McAlister, Scott

doi:10.1097/01.sa.0000527636.13714.6a

Cited by 27 publications

(50 citation statements)

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“…Development of greater understanding regarding the risks of infection, methods of decontamination, new methods of recycling of contaminated single-use equipment and full LCAs for medical devices (including costs of sterilization) will inform these decisions to reduce the dilemma. Given that new electricity in the UK/EU is principally sourced from renewable sources rather than fossil fuels, converting to reusable rather than single-use equipment in a five-theatre medical hospital was estimated to result in 84% reduction in CO 2 emissions and an annual saving of around £18,000, although water use was doubled (McGain et al 2017). Reusable surgical textiles can offer significant improvements in carbon emissions and resource usage (Overcash 2012) and may improve infection control (Markel et al 2017).…”

Section: Resource Consumption and Waste Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental sustainability in veterinary anaesthesia

Jones

West²

2019

Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia

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Objective Attention is drawn to the potential of global warming to influence the health and wellbeing of the human race. There is increasing public and governmental pressure on healthcare organisations to mitigate and adapt to the climate changes that are occurring. The science of anaesthetic agents such as nitrous oxide and the halogenated anaesthetic agents such as greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting agents is discussed and quantified. Additional environmental impacts of healthcare systems are explored. The role of noninhalational anaesthetic pharmaceuticals is discussed, including the environmental life-cycle analyses of their manufacture, transport, disposal and use. The significant role of anaesthetists in recycling and waste management, resource use (particularly plastics, water and energy) and engagement in sustainability are discussed. Finally, future directions for sustainability in veterinary anaesthesia are proposed.Conclusions Veterinary anaesthetists have a considerable opportunity to drive sustainability within their organisations through modification of their practice, research and education. The principles of sustainability may help veterinary anaesthetists to mitigate and adapt to our environmental crisis. Due to their particular impact as greenhouse gases, anaesthetic agents should be used conservatively with the lowest safe fresh gas flow possible. Technologies for reprocessing anaesthetic agents are described.

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Section: Resource Consumption and Waste Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental sustainability in veterinary anaesthesia

Jones

West²

2019

Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia

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“…The fates described in this study correspond to the European market scenarios described by FORCE Technology 2017 [15], and the results of this study are comparable to their results. Other studies have found optional incineration with energy recovery and recycling to be significant, when assessing the options for waste treatment, for example, recycling [8].…”

Section: Different Waste Treatment Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, there is a need to be able to understand the contributors and map the impacts, when comparing diverse ways to perform the same operation. Recent studies have compared greenhouse gas emissions calculated as CO 2 -equivalent emissions for reusable and single-use ureteroscopes [6], environmental impacts of single-use versus reusable scissors [7] and single-use versus Impacts of Reusable and Single-Use Bronchoscopes reusable anaesthetic equipment [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specialised functions in hospitals clean and disinfect reusable devices [12][13][14]. Such developments have naturally led to an increase in the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and specialised cleaning and disinfection equipment, which have increased the environmental burden [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, and due to increasing labour costs, capital costs, repair costs and energy requirements, single-use devices have become the preferred choice for many choices of equipment use, e. g. anaesthetic equipment [8,10,[12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparative Study on Environmental Impacts of Reusable and Single-Use Bronchoscopes

Sørensen¹

2018

AJEP

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The introduction of single-use alternatives has stressed the need for environmental comparisons between reusable and single-use devises in the healthcare sector. Discarding of single-use devices intuitively causes concern among staff in hospitals, other users and people with environmental concerns as to whether the single use is environmentally friendly. This study aims to compare carbon dioxide (CO 2)-equivalent emissions and resource consumption from a single-use bronchoscope (Ambu ® aScope TM 4) to a reusable flexible bronchoscope. The comparison is made using a simplified life-cycle-assessment methodology. The analysis shows that the materials used for the cleaning operations of the reusable scopes are a key factor affecting the impact factors assessed; energy consumption, emission of CO 2-equivalent and consumption of scarce resources. Initially, it is assumed that each reusable scope is cleaned using one set of personal protective equipment (PPE) per cleaning operation, but since cleaning practice may vary the consequence of cleaning more scopes with one set of PPE is also assessed. Using one set of protective wear per operation and the materials for cleaning and disinfection determine that reusable scopes have comparable or higher material and energy consumption as well as higher emissions of CO 2-equivalents and values of resource consumption. Cleaning two or more reusable scopes per set of PPE makes the impacts fairly comparable. Other aspects that may impact the results are also assessed, including energy consumption for washing and drying units, differences in use of PPE and differences in the disposal of PPE or single-use scopes. As the three assessed parameters are highly dependent on cleaning procedures and the use of protective equipment, it cannot be concluded from these results which type of bronchoscope affects the environmental factors investigated here the most.

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Environmentally sustainable perioperative medicine: simple strategies for anesthetic practice

Petre

Malherbe

2020

Can J Anesth/J Can Anesth

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Purpose This continuing professional development module aims to inform anesthesiologists about the magnitude of healthcare-related waste and its contribution to global warming, as well as providing general strategies to improve environmental sustainability in daily anesthesia practice in a Canadian context. Principal considerations Global warming is considered to be the biggest global health threat of the 21 st century. Healthcare is not only adversely impacted by but also a significant contributor to global warming and environmental degradation. Healthcare provision produces 4.6% of the total national greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, while healthcare waste has increased unabated in recent years, largely because of increased use of disposable medical supplies. Operating rooms are highly energy-intensive and produce up to 33% of total hospital waste. Increasingly, attention in healthcare is being focused on environmental sustainability by exploring evidence-based approaches to more sustainable delivery of healthcare. Key to environmental sustainability research is the life-cycle assessment methodology, which measures the cradle-tograve impact of products on various environmental outcomes and empowers purchasing departments to make environmentally conscious decisions. By using the ''reduce, reuse, recycle'' hierarchy of waste reduction, several easily implementable evidence-based strategies are proposed to reduce the environmental footprint of everyday anesthesia practice. These recommendations focus on informed decisions on volatile anesthetic use, reduced drug waste, limited use of single-use devices, and meticulous waste segregation and recycling strategies. Conclusions Anesthesiologists have a unique opportunity to be champions of environmental sustainability through evidence-based practices, while simultaneously reaping significant synergistic health, cost, and quality co-benefits. Objectives of this continuing professional development (CPD) moduleAfter reading this module, the reader should be able to:1. Define environmental sustainability as it applies to anesthesia practice. 2. Discuss the role of life-cycle assessment in identifying environmentally sustainable options for commonly used anesthesia equipment. 3. Outline the environmental impact of commonly used anesthetic agents and methods of mitigating these effects. 4. Determine the role of recycling in reducing the environmental impact of modern anesthetic practice.

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Financial and Environmental Costs of Reusable and Single-Use Anaesthetic Equipment

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Environmental sustainability in veterinary anaesthesia

Environmental sustainability in veterinary anaesthesia

Comparative Study on Environmental Impacts of Reusable and Single-Use Bronchoscopes

Environmentally sustainable perioperative medicine: simple strategies for anesthetic practice

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