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To the Editor: Despite heightened worldwide interest in sustainable health care, the carbon footprint of the US health care sector has not yet been estimated. Quantifying the environmental impact of health care is important to determine the potential value of mitigation efforts and to reduce harm associated with health care delivery. We estimated the carbon footprint of the US health care sector, defined as total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to the production of health care goods and services.

Methods

Health care GHG emissions were estimated using 2007 data on health expenditures published by the National Health Accounts Team¹ and the Environmental Input-Output Life-Cycle Assessment (EIOLCA) model developed by the Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute.² The EIOLCA is based on the 1997 Industry Benchmark Producer Price input-output table from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and is a matrix showing the dollar amounts of commodities that industries purchase from each . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Jeanette W. Chung, PhD
jchung1@bsd.uchicago.edu

David O. Meltzer, MD, PhD
Section of Hospital Medicine
Department of Medicine
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

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