Estimate of the Carbon Footprint of the US Health Care Sector
- Jeanette W. Chung, PhD jchung1@bsd.uchicago.edu;
- David O. Meltzer, MD, PhDSection of Hospital MedicineDepartment of MedicineUniversity of ChicagoChicago, Illinois
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- CARBON FOOTPRINT
- DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE
- ENVIRONMENT
- GREENHOUSE EFFECT
- HEALTH CARE COSTS
- UNITED STATES
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 …
