Scotland Bans Anaesthetic Due To Its ‘Impact On The Climate’ – England & EU To Follow

Scotland has become the first country in the world to ban the inhaled anaesthetic desflurane because of its impact on the climate.

According to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the gas, which is used to put patients to sleep safely during surgery, has a global warming potential 2,500 times greater than carbon dioxide

Some hospitals in the UK have already begun phasing out the anaesthetic.

NHS England say they aim to stop using desflurane completely by early 2024, except in exceptional circumstances.

Sott net reports: It estimates that this will reduce harmful emissions by around 40 kilotonnes of carbon a year – equivalent to powering 11,000 homes.

Comment: Powering 11,000 homes? What? This is an anaesthetic

Will Europe follow suit in banning desflurane?

The anaesthetic gases desflurane and sevoflurane are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – a group of human-made chemicals that are being phased out in the EU due to their climate impact.

The EU plans to ban the use of desflurane from 1 January 2026, except in exceptional circumstances.

When its use is strictly required and no other anaesthetic can be used on medical grounds, desflurane may still be used after this date.

What is desflurane’s environmental impact and what are the alternatives?

Anaesthetics account for two-to-five per cent of the NHS’s carbon footprint.

Comment: This is notable not because CO2 has any impact on the climate, but how the NHS is accounting not for its ability to support people’s health, but on its supposed impact on the environment; what next, limiting ‘CO2 heavy’ cancer treatments?

Other potent greenhouse gases used in these procedures include isoflurane, sevoflurane and nitrous oxide.

On a typical day, anaesthetists can produce up to 500 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB)’s anaesthetic department – who were the first in Wales to stop use of desflurane. An average UK citizen’s daily equivalent is 25 kg.

Desflurane is the main culprit with 2,590 times more global warming potential (GWP) than CO2. A 240 ml bottle of desflurane, when vaporised, will produce the equivalent of 886 kg of carbon dioxide, according to the non-profit Centre for Sustainable Healthcare.

Comment: That may be so, but isn’t desflurane being used for critical medical procedures?

This is far higher than the other widely used inhaled agent, sevoflurane, which has a GWP of 130. Nitrous oxide, meanwhile, warms the atmosphere almost 300 times more than CO2 and remains in the atmosphere for over 100 years.

Other anaesthetic techniques such as intravenous agents and regional anaesthesia offer safe alternatives with significantly lower climate impacts.

Comment: Are these alternatives as effective? Are they as safe?

The impact of anaesthetics could also be reduced by reducing gas flows and developing technology to capture the gases.

Comment: Human life was already being relegated to being of less import than the establishment’s CO2 agenda, this is just one of the more recent, and glaring, examples. And, as we saw with the lockdowns, it’s only a matter of time before other human activities from those that sustain life, to those that bring joy to life, are restricted, ostensibly, because of CO2 emissions: Thousands of farmers protest in Brussels over nitrogen limits that will cause ‘socio-economic carnage’

With the above in mind, remember all the hysteria in the 90’s over hairsprays and refrigerators that, we were told, were causing the Earth’s ozone hole, and were subsequently banned? Ozone hole of 2021 finally closing, 3rd longest-lasting & 11th largest on record