Feature
Sustainable IR
Steps to creating an eco-friendly practice By Tushar Garg, MD, and Clifford R. Weiss, MD, FSIR, FCIRSE
T
he health care system in the United States significantly contributes to the country’s greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions (10%), electricity consumption (73 billion kWh, 9%) and solid waste (1.54 billion kg, 1%).1,2
Due
to the environmental impact of GHG emissions, there have been various calls for the health care industry to reduce its carbon footprint.
Modern imaging equipment requires a large amount of energy consumption and, along with the extensive use of single-use, disposable products, interventional radiology itself contributes a great deal of GHG emissions, electricity consumption and solid waste. This has been widely acknowledged in the literature and many individual IR divisions are already
10 IRQ | SPRING 2022
taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint by identifying common practice patterns that have significant environmental impacts.
Data from a recent study estimated that one IR department at a large center emitted approximately 23,500 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) gases over 5 days—an average of 243 Kg CO2e per procedure.3
The
most significant carbon emissions came from indoor climate control systems (49%), followed by production and delivery of disposables (from warehouse to the hospital; 41%), electricity for equipment and lighting (4%), waste disposal (2%), and the use of gas anesthetics (<1%). For perspective, it would take 389 trees 10 years to offset the single IR division’s 5-day carbon emission.4
Energy use Interestingly, the majority of the electricity and gas used to power the clinical control system happens outside scheduled working hours, when the suites were either unoccupied or rarely used.3
Thus, electricity use in IR can be
reduced by modifying the current use of climate control systems and by switching off the imaging equipment, computers and lighting when they are not in use, which would have minimal if any impact on clinical care but a net gain on reducing emissions and energy costs.5
The climate
control system can be modified by allowing it to drift within a wide range of temperatures (instead of maintaining the optimum temperature at all times) when the suite is not in use.
Products and disposables Transporting medical supplies, which often involves international or interstate shipping of individually boxed items, has also been shown to contribute significantly to GHG production. If possible, using locally produced supplies or purchasing supplies that are housed nearby and provide batch shipping can significantly reduce the environmental impact.
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