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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to A Practical Guide for Physicians and Health Care Workers to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint in Daily Clinical Work
ClearEcological transition and health: the role of physicians and healthcare
This perspective article examines the role of physicians and healthcare workers in addressing climate change and pollution as major public health threats, including microplastics, PFAS, and fine particulate matter. It argues that the medical community must move beyond disease treatment to advocate for reduced fossil fuel use and sustainable healthcare policies.
The climate crisis in clinical practice: Addressing air pollution, heat, and microplastics
This review examines how climate change-driven environmental threats including air pollution, extreme heat, and microplastics are already affecting patients in clinical settings. Researchers found that these exposures disproportionately harm vulnerable populations and that physicians need to be equipped to recognize and address the health effects of environmental degradation. The study argues that healthcare professionals have a critical role to play in both treating affected patients and advocating for policies that reduce fossil fuel-related pollution.
Planetary health action framework: A case study
This case study applied a patient-centered planetary health care framework to a primary care clinical case, using eight analytical lenses including actor-network theory and evidence-based medicine to integrate individual health with environmental sustainability. The paper presents planetary health action as feasible at the community clinical level through structured reflective practice.
Cobénéfices santé-environnement : concepts et recommandations pour la pratique clinique
This paper reviews the concepts of health-environment co-benefits within One Health, EcoHealth, and Planetary Health frameworks, providing clinical practice recommendations for healthcare professionals to integrate environmental co-benefit considerations — including reductions in plastic and chemical exposures — into patient counseling and healthcare system decision-making.
Actionable avenues for dermatologists to reduce their environmental impact
This commentary outlines actionable steps dermatologists can take to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare delivery, including minimizing single-use plastics, reducing regulated medical waste, and implementing green procurement policies. Researchers highlighted opportunities for reassessing procedure kits, minimizing medication waste, and promoting environmentally conscious practices. The study underscores that healthcare settings are significant contributors to plastic waste and offers practical strategies for reducing that footprint.
Carbon Footprint of Anesthesia: Comment
This commentary on a study about the carbon footprint of anesthesia discusses methodological considerations for accurately accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from healthcare, including factors like electricity source variability. The authors commend the original study's detailed approach and encourage similar analyses across other surgical procedures. Reducing anesthesia-related carbon emissions is one component of healthcare's broader sustainability goals.
Sustainability in the Operating Room
Researchers review the outsized environmental footprint of surgical operating rooms — particularly from volatile anesthetic agents, medications, and single-use equipment — and argue that anesthesiology has exceptional leverage to reduce healthcare's greenhouse gas emissions and waste burden as part of a broader sustainability transformation in medicine.
Sustainability in Obstetrics and Gynecology
This review examines how the climate crisis disproportionately affects women and pregnant people through exposure to air pollution, extreme heat, and toxic substances. Researchers found that healthcare practices in obstetrics and gynecology, including operating rooms and neonatal units, also contribute to environmental harm through waste generation and carbon emissions. The study proposes strategies for decarbonizing clinical settings while improving health outcomes for vulnerable patient populations.
Green surgery: to reduce carbon footprint
This paper examines the environmental footprint of surgical procedures and proposes strategies for green surgery, including reduction of single-use plastic instruments and packaging that contribute to operating theater waste streams. The authors call for systemic changes in hospital procurement to reduce carbon emissions from healthcare.
Sustainability in anaesthesia and critical care: beyond carbon
Researchers reviewed the full environmental footprint of healthcare — going beyond greenhouse gas emissions to include water pollution, toxic chemicals, and microplastics — and found that drugs like propofol and antibiotics discharged into waterways, along with massive quantities of disposable plastic equipment, pose serious ecological risks. The article calls on clinicians and policymakers to adopt holistic strategies that reduce waste, limit single-use plastics, and account for the full spectrum of environmental harm.
Environmental and economic impact of sustainable anaesthesia interventions: a single-centre retrospective observational study
Researchers at a Swiss hospital found that implementing sustainable anesthesia practices — including eliminating the high-carbon anesthetic desflurane and reducing sevoflurane use — cut the environmental impact of anesthesia by 81% per procedure while simultaneously lowering costs by 11%, demonstrating that green healthcare practices can align with financial savings.
Integrating climate and environmental justice into patient care: A case study
This case study describes a clinical approach to integrating environmental justice and climate change considerations into patient care, highlighting how environmental exposures including microplastics relate to health inequities.
Environmentally sustainable critical care: Special issue introduction
This editorial introduces a special issue on environmentally sustainable critical care, highlighting the healthcare sector's significant contribution to climate change, air pollution, and waste generation. The authors discuss how the triple planetary crisis of environmental degradation is both worsened by and harmful to healthcare delivery. The piece calls for urgent action to reduce the environmental footprint of medical care, including addressing single-use plastics and waste management.
Single‐use materials and poorly recycled waste in intensive care: An argument for improving sustainability
This article argues for improving sustainability in intensive care units by addressing the environmental impact of single-use plastics, paper, and other materials commonly used in clinical settings. The authors highlight that ICU waste is energy-intensive to produce and difficult to recycle, contributing significantly to healthcare's carbon footprint. The study calls for rethinking material choices and waste management practices in critical care to reduce plastic pollution and environmental harm.
Hospital Workers’ Pro-environmental Behavior: A Qualitative Interview Study
Researchers conducted qualitative interviews with hospital workers to understand their perceptions and practices of pro-environmental behavior in healthcare settings. The study found uneven levels of environmental awareness among staff and identified key barriers including time constraints and institutional practices, as well as driving factors like personal values and organizational support.
Planetary health: an imperative for pediatric radiology
This commentary argued that planetary health is an imperative for pediatric radiology practice, noting that climate change and extreme weather events disproportionately harm children and calling for the field to address environmental determinants of pediatric health.
Thinking big and the WE ACT framework for environmentally sustainable critical care nursing
This paper introduces the WE ACT framework for environmentally sustainable critical care nursing, addressing the healthcare sector's contribution to climate change and plastic waste. The framework encourages nurses to consider waste reduction, energy use, advocacy, circular economy principles, and transformative change in their practice. The study highlights that healthcare generates significant microplastic and chemical pollution, making sustainability efforts in clinical settings essential for planetary health.
#36915 D37 – the green footprint of regional anesthesia
This paper is not about microplastics; it is a conference abstract examining the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions associated with regional anesthesia techniques in the context of healthcare's contribution to climate change.
How to reduce your lab's carbon footprint
This practical guide outlined strategies for research laboratories to reduce their carbon footprint, covering energy use, consumables, waste management, and procurement decisions. It provides actionable steps for scientists to lower the environmental impact of laboratory operations.
Environmental sustainability special issue of Nursing in Critical Care
This editorial highlights the connection between planetary health and healthcare, focusing on how environmental threats like climate change, pollution, and microplastics affect both patient well-being and the healthcare system's own environmental footprint. The author argues that critical care nurses and healthcare professionals have a responsibility to address environmental sustainability in their practice. The piece calls for greater awareness and action within the nursing profession to promote both human and planetary health.
Introducing Health-Climate-Economics and Rapid Viability Test for Candidate Solutions as a Tool for Automated Healthcare Procurement and Evaluation
This paper introduces a health-climate-economics framework for evaluating healthcare procurement decisions that account for climate and health co-benefits. It is not related to microplastics.
Role of Medicine for the Alleviation of Resource Scarcity
This paper explores how medicine and health science intersect with economic wellbeing and ecological sustainability in the context of resource scarcity, arguing that healthcare systems and planetary boundaries are deeply interrelated challenges requiring integrated solutions.
Reducing pediatric healthcare plastic pollution: Call to action
This paper highlights that hospitals are a significant and underrecognized source of plastic pollution, generating large volumes of single-use plastics that degrade into micro- and nanoplastics. Children are especially vulnerable due to their developing physiology and higher per-kilogram exposures. The authors call for clinical strategies to reduce unnecessary single-use plastics, transition to safer alternatives, and advance regulatory policies restricting harmful plastic additives in healthcare settings.
Infection prevention and control programme priorities for sustainable health and environmental systems
Researchers highlight a paradox in healthcare: infection prevention programs that protect patients and workers from disease also generate significant plastic waste and environmental harm. Addressing this trade-off is essential for building health systems that are both safe and truly sustainable.