Photo: Anna Shvets | Pexels
Scotland has become the first country in the world to stop its hospitals using the anaesthetic desflurane. NHS data suggests the gas, used to keep people unconscious during surgery, has a global warming potential 2,500 times greater than carbon dioxide. Banning it in Scotland would cut emissions equal to powering 1,700 homes a year. Dr Kenneth Barker, clinical lead for Scotland's national green theatres programme, realized "in 2017 that the amount of desflurane we used in a typical day's work as an anaesthetist resulted in emissions equivalent to me driving 670 miles that day." Many hospitals have switched to safe and effective anaesthetic gases with less warming potential or to using alternative non-gaseous anaesthetics and more efficient equipment.
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