Life cycle environmental emissions and health damages from the Canadian healthcare system: An economic-environmental-epidemiological analysis
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This work uses a linked economic-environmental-epidemiological modeling framework to quantify pollutant emissions and their implications for public health, based on Canadian national healthcare expenditures over the period 2009–2015, and corroborates similar estimates for the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.Abstract:
Background Human health is dependent upon environmental health. Air pollution is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and climate change has been identified as the single greatest public health threat of the 21st century. As a large, resource-intensive sector of the Canadian economy, healthcare itself contributes to pollutant emissions, both directly from facility and vehicle emissions and indirectly through the purchase of emissions-intensive goods and services. Together these are termed life cycle emissions. Here, we estimate the extent of healthcare-associated life cycle emissions as well as the public health damages they cause. Methods and findings We use a linked economic-environmental-epidemiological modeling framework to quantify pollutant emissions and their implications for public health, based on Canadian national healthcare expenditures over the period 2009–2015. Expenditures gathered by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) are matched to sectors in a national environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) model to estimate emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and >300 other pollutants. Damages to human health are then calculated using the IMPACT2002+ life cycle impact assessment model, considering uncertainty in the damage factors used. On a life cycle basis, Canada’s healthcare system was responsible for 33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), or 4.6% of the national total, as well as >200,000 tonnes of other pollutants. We link these emissions to a median estimate of 23,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually from direct exposures to hazardous pollutants and from environmental changes caused by pollution, with an uncertainty range of 4,500–610,000 DALYs lost annually. A limitation of this national-level study is the use of aggregated data and multiple modeling steps to link healthcare expenditures to emissions to health damages. While informative on a national level, the applicability of these findings to guide decision-making at individual institutions is limited. Uncertainties related to national economic and environmental accounts, model representativeness, and classification of healthcare expenditures are discussed. Conclusions Our results for GHG emissions corroborate similar estimates for the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, with emissions from hospitals and pharmaceuticals being the most significant expenditure categories. Non-GHG emissions are responsible for the majority of health damages, predominantly related to particulate matter (PM). This work can guide efforts by Canadian healthcare professionals toward more sustainable practices.read more
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The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate
Nick Watts,Markus Amann,Nigel W. Arnell,Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson,Kristine Belesova,Maxwell T. Boykoff,Peter Byass,Wenjia Cai,Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum,Stuart Capstick,Jonathan Chambers,Carole Dalin,Meaghan Daly,Niheer Dasandi,Michael Davies,Paul Drummond,Robert Dubrow,Kristie L. Ebi,Matthew J. Eckelman,Paul Ekins,Luis E. Escobar,Lucia Fernandez Montoya,Lucien Georgeson,Hilary Graham,Paul Haggar,Ian Hamilton,Stella M. Hartinger,Jeremy J. Hess,Ilan Kelman,Gregor Kiesewetter,Tord Kjellstrom,Dominic Kniveton,Bruno Lemke,Yang Liu,Melissa C. Lott,Rachel Lowe,Maquins Odhiambo Sewe,Jaime Martinez-Urtaza,Mark A. Maslin,Lucy McAllister,Alice McGushin,Slava Mikhaylov,James Milner,Maziar Moradi-Lakeh,Karyn Morrissey,Kris A. Murray,Simon Munzert,Maria Nilsson,Tara Neville,Tadj Oreszczyn,Fereidoon Owfi,Olivia Pearman,David Pencheon,Dung Phung,Steve Pye,Ruth Quinn,Mahnaz Rabbaniha,Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson,Joacim Rocklöv,Jan C. Semenza,Jodi D. Sherman,Joy Shumake-Guillemot,Meisam Tabatabaei,Jonathon Taylor,Joaquin Trinanes,Paul Wilkinson,Anthony Costello,Peng Gong,Hugh Montgomery +68 more
TL;DR: The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change : ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate is ensured.
The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: from 25 years of inaction to a global transformation for public health (vol 391, pg 540, 2017)
N Watts,M Amann,S Ayeb-Karlsson,J Chambers,I Hamilton,R Lowe,S Pye,F Owfi,M Rabbaniha,M Tabatabaei,AM Latifi +10 more
TL;DR: The Lancet Countdown tracks progress on health and climate change and provides an independent assessment of the health effects of climate change, the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and the impact of the global warming in the coming years.
The 2019 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change
Nick Watts,Markus Amann,Nigel W. Arnell,Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson,Kristine Belesova,Maxwell T. Boykoff,Peter Byass,Wenjia Cai,Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum,Stuart Capstick,Jonathan Chambers,Carole Dalin,Meaghan Daly,Niheer Dasandi,Michael Davies,Paul Drummond,Robert Dubrow,Kristie L. Ebi,Matthew J. Eckelman,Paul Ekins,Luis E. Escobar,Lucia Fernandez Montoya,Lucien Georgeson,Hilary Graham,Paul Haggar,Ian Hamilton,Stella M. Hartinger,Jeremy J. Hess,Ilan Helman,Gregor Kiesewetter,Tord Kjellstrom,Dominic Kniveton,Bruno Lemke,Yang Liu,Melissa C. Lott,Rachel Lowe,Maquins Odhiambo Sewe,Jaime Martinez-Urtaza,Mark A. Maslin,Lucy McAllister,Alice McGushin,Slava Mikhaylov,James Milner,Maziar Moradi-Lakeh,Karyn Morrissey,Kris A. Murray,Simon Munzert,Maria Nilsson,Tara Neville,Tadj Oreszczyn,Fereidoon Owfi,Olivia Pearman,David Pencheon,Dung Phung,Steve Pye,Ruth Quinn,Mahnaz Rabbaniha,Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson,Joacim Rocklöv,Jan C. Semenza,Jodi D. Sherman,Joy Shumake-Guillemot,Meisam Tabatabaei,Jonathon Taylor,Joaquin Trinanes,Paul Wilkinson,Anthony Costello,Peng Gong,Hugh Montgomery +68 more
TL;DR: The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change : ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate as mentioned in this paper, is the most relevant work to ours.
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The environmental footprint of health care: a global assessment.
Manfred Lenzen,Arunima Malik,Mengyu Li,Jacob Fry,Helga Weisz,Helga Weisz,Peter-Paul Pichler,Leonardo Suveges Moreira Chaves,Leonardo Suveges Moreira Chaves,Anthony Capon,Anthony Capon,David Pencheon +11 more
TL;DR: This multiregional input-output analysis evaluated the contribution of health-care sectors in driving environmental damage that in turn puts human health at risk and quantified the direct and indirect supply-chain environmental damage driven by the demand for health care.
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International comparison of health care carbon footprints
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