S Shah, H Morris, S Thiagarajah, A Gordon, S Sharma, P Haslam, J Garcia, F Ali
{"title":"Handling 'carbon footprint' in orthopaedics.","authors":"S Shah, H Morris, S Thiagarajah, A Gordon, S Sharma, P Haslam, J Garcia, F Ali","doi":"10.1308/rcsann.2023.0052","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The National Health Service contributes 4%-5% of England and Wales' greenhouse gases and a quarter of all public sector waste. Between 20% and 33% of healthcare waste originates from a hospital's operating room, and up to 90% of waste is sent for costly and unneeded hazardous waste processing. The goal of this study was to quantify the amount and type of waste produced during a selection of common trauma and elective orthopaedic operations, and to calculate the carbon footprint of processing the waste.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Waste generated for both elective and trauma procedures was separated primarily into clean and contaminated, paper or plastic, and then weighed. The annual carbon footprint for each operation at each site was subsequently calculated.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Elective procedures can generate up to 16.5kg of plastic waste per procedure. Practices such as double-draping the patient contribute to increasing the quantity of waste. Over the procedures analysed, the mean total plastic waste at the hospital sites varied from 6 to 12kg. One hospital site undertook a pilot of switching disposable gowns for reusable ones with a subsequent reduction of 66% in the carbon footprint and a cost saving of £13,483.89.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study sheds new light on the environmental impact of waste produced during trauma and elective orthopaedic procedures. Mitigating the environmental impact of the operating room requires a collective drive for a culture change to sustainability and social responsibility. Each clinician can have an impact upon the carbon footprint of their operating theatre.</p>","PeriodicalId":8088,"journal":{"name":"Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11214852/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2023.0052","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/4/2 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SURGERY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: The National Health Service contributes 4%-5% of England and Wales' greenhouse gases and a quarter of all public sector waste. Between 20% and 33% of healthcare waste originates from a hospital's operating room, and up to 90% of waste is sent for costly and unneeded hazardous waste processing. The goal of this study was to quantify the amount and type of waste produced during a selection of common trauma and elective orthopaedic operations, and to calculate the carbon footprint of processing the waste.
Methods: Waste generated for both elective and trauma procedures was separated primarily into clean and contaminated, paper or plastic, and then weighed. The annual carbon footprint for each operation at each site was subsequently calculated.
Results: Elective procedures can generate up to 16.5kg of plastic waste per procedure. Practices such as double-draping the patient contribute to increasing the quantity of waste. Over the procedures analysed, the mean total plastic waste at the hospital sites varied from 6 to 12kg. One hospital site undertook a pilot of switching disposable gowns for reusable ones with a subsequent reduction of 66% in the carbon footprint and a cost saving of £13,483.89.
Conclusions: This study sheds new light on the environmental impact of waste produced during trauma and elective orthopaedic procedures. Mitigating the environmental impact of the operating room requires a collective drive for a culture change to sustainability and social responsibility. Each clinician can have an impact upon the carbon footprint of their operating theatre.
期刊介绍:
The Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England is the official scholarly research journal of the Royal College of Surgeons and is published eight times a year in January, February, March, April, May, July, September and November.
The main aim of the journal is to publish high-quality, peer-reviewed papers that relate to all branches of surgery. The Annals also includes letters and comments, a regular technical section, controversial topics, CORESS feedback and book reviews. The editorial board is composed of experts from all the surgical specialties.