Environmental and health impacts of U.S. healthcare system [View all]

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http://news.yale.edu/2016/06/09/environmental-and-health-impacts-us-healthcare-system

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Environmental and health impacts of U.S. healthcare system[/font]

By Ziba Kashef
June 9, 2016

[font size=3]If the U.S. healthcare system were a country, it would rank 13th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research. The study, published June 9 in PLOS ONE, quantified previously unreported environmental and public health impacts of the nation’s healthcare sector.

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To investigate the impacts, Yale’s Dr. Jodi Sherman, and first author Matthew Eckelman of Northeastern University first used an economic model based on federal data to calculate total emissions of different pollutants produced by the healthcare sector over a 10-year period, drawing on national health expenditure data. They analyzed direct emissions from hospitals and clinician’s offices, as well as indirect emissions generated by the sector’s suppliers of energy, goods, and services.

The researchers then linked the healthcare-related emissions to specific environmental and health outcomes, including global warming; ozone depletion; respiratory disease from air pollutants; cancer from chemical exposure; and the environmental effects of acid rain, among others.

Among their findings, the researchers estimated that greenhouse gas emissions from the healthcare sector grew 30% over the past decade, accounting for 9.8% of the national total in 2013. Were it a country, the sector would rank “ahead of the entire United Kingdom” in emissions, said Sherman.

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