Manfred Lenzen1, Arunima Malik2, Mengyu Li1, Jacob Fry3, Helga Weisz4, Peter-Paul Pichler5, Leonardo Suveges Moreira Chaves6, Anthony Capon7, David Pencheon8. 1. Integrated Sustainability Analysis, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. 2. Integrated Sustainability Analysis, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Discipline of Accounting, Sydney Business School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: arunima.malik@sydney.edu.au. 3. Integrated Sustainability Analysis, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan. 4. Social Metabolism and Impacts, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany; Department of Cultural History & Theory and Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 5. Social Metabolism and Impacts, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany. 6. Integrated Sustainability Analysis, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. 7. School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 8. Medical and Health School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health-care services are necessary for sustaining and improving human wellbeing, yet they have an environmental footprint that contributes to environment-related threats to human health. Previous studies have quantified the carbon emissions resulting from health care at a global level. We aimed to provide a global assessment of the wide-ranging environmental impacts of this sector. METHODS: In this multiregional input-output analysis, we evaluated the contribution of health-care sectors in driving environmental damage that in turn puts human health at risk. Using a global supply-chain database containing detailed information on health-care sectors, we quantified the direct and indirect supply-chain environmental damage driven by the demand for health care. We focused on seven environmental stressors with known adverse feedback cycles: greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter, air pollutants (nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide), malaria risk, reactive nitrogen in water, and scarce water use. FINDINGS: Health care causes global environmental impacts that, depending on which indicator is considered, range between 1% and 5% of total global impacts, and are more than 5% for some national impacts. INTERPRETATION: Enhancing health-care expenditure to mitigate negative health effects of environmental damage is often promoted by health-care practitioners. However, global supply chains that feed into the enhanced activity of health-care sectors in turn initiate adverse feedback cycles by increasing the environmental impact of health care, thus counteracting the mission of health care. FUNDING: Australian Research Council, National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project.
BACKGROUND: Health-care services are necessary for sustaining and improving human wellbeing, yet they have an environmental footprint that contributes to environment-related threats to human health. Previous studies have quantified the carbon emissions resulting from health care at a global level. We aimed to provide a global assessment of the wide-ranging environmental impacts of this sector. METHODS: In this multiregional input-output analysis, we evaluated the contribution of health-care sectors in driving environmental damage that in turn puts human health at risk. Using a global supply-chain database containing detailed information on health-care sectors, we quantified the direct and indirect supply-chain environmental damage driven by the demand for health care. We focused on seven environmental stressors with known adverse feedback cycles: greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter, air pollutants (nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide), malaria risk, reactive nitrogen in water, and scarce water use. FINDINGS: Health care causes global environmental impacts that, depending on which indicator is considered, range between 1% and 5% of total global impacts, and are more than 5% for some national impacts. INTERPRETATION: Enhancing health-care expenditure to mitigate negative health effects of environmental damage is often promoted by health-care practitioners. However, global supply chains that feed into the enhanced activity of health-care sectors in turn initiate adverse feedback cycles by increasing the environmental impact of health care, thus counteracting the mission of health care. FUNDING: Australian Research Council, National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project.
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