How Hospitals Fuel Climate Change

How hospitals promote climate change

Winston Choi-ShagrinReporting on environmental health 🌎

It may come as a surprise, but the propellant gases in an inhaler or anesthetic are greenhouse gases.

Has laughing gas or "laughing gas" 300 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. And the main ingredient in an inhaler is a fluorocarbon, a class of powerful greenhouse gases used in air conditioners and refrigerators.

Improvements are possible. For example, the gas in a metered dose inhaler has the same warming potential as 100 kg of CO2 over the course of its life, while a dry powder inhaler only produces the equivalent of 4 kg.