Northern Light Health stops using climate polluting anesthetic

Northern Light Health said it is the first health care company in Maine to stop using an anesthetic gas because of its contribution to climate change .

The hospital company eliminated desflurane from its operating rooms as of Aug. 1, sustainability officer Tim Doak said.

The gas is widely used for general anesthesia in surgery , but is a more harmful greenhouse pollutant than carbon dioxide or methane. It traps heat more efficiently and lasts longer in the atmosphere, according to Doak.

“Many of the different gases we use in surgery are much worse per unit volume than CO₂ is. Of the many gases, desflurane is by far the worst,” Doak said.

“Take a given unit of desflurane and compare that to CO₂ and you find that desflurane is about 2,500 times worse,” he added.

Just a small amount of the gas breathed in by a patient gets metabolized. Most is exhaled and captured by a ventilation system that expels it into the atmosphere.

Reducing anesthetic emissions is part of Northern Light’s long-term sustainability campaign. The company wants to halve its carbon dioxide pollution by 2030.

Anesthetic inhalants make up 5 percent of Northern Light’s overall emissions, Doak said. Desflurane contributes almost all of that pollution, he added.

“To the extent we are using this gas in surgery, it is contributing to climate change and it is a problem,” Doak said.

Desflurane alternatives, such as sevoflurane, are still greenhouse gases, just not as potent.

Northern Light first aimed to halve its desflurane use, but it quickly understood it could eliminate the drug entirely. Substitutes are cheaper and just as effective, said Sarah Smith, chief of anesthesia at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

The company estimated it will save $50,000 a year and cut 408 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents by switching away from desflurane.

Health care providers in the U.S. and across the world are now comprehending the climate impact of inhalant drugs such as desflurane and using less polluting alternatives .

“There’s a lot of opportunity in the healthcare system to reduce our waste and contribution to global warming,” Smith said. “This was one that everyone was excited to take on.”

This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public .