The healthcare sector is required and expected to be the leading sector in greening itself and working towards minimizing its ecological footprint ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). Thus, healthcare facilities should be on the front line in fostering global health. For instance, the Institute of Medicine 2013 Workshop Summary (Public Health Linkages with Sustainability) requires that healthcare institutions should act by example in ensuring that all its activities are appropriately contained and geared towards ensuring minimal pollution to the environment ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). This is because healthcare institutions are established purposely to ensure that the planet is free from contamination and diseases. Besides, the healthcare system is expected to inform the public of the strategies and safety practices that are critical in mitigating environmental pollution.
As a policy, healthcare professionals are required to use specific therapeutic tools once for every patient and dispose of them off immediately to avoid polluting the environment (Thiel et al., 2015). This implies that surgical instruments and drug-injecting needles should be manufactured in large quantities for use in healthcare facilities. Once these instruments are used, they are not supposed to be re-used or kept for recycling. Instead, they are supposed to be disposed of through incineration (Andrews, 2019). The primary purpose of using the clinical instruments once for every patient is to prevent the transmission of diseases from one patient to the other (Andrews, 2019). Besides, the clinical tools are incinerated to avoid water and land pollution. More specifically, the idea of disposing of the clinical instruments through incineration is to minimize environmental pollution.
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Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Statistics indicate that the United States healthcare systems are among the leading institutions in causing environmental pollution and hence leading to the eruption of the avoidable burden of diseases (Chung & Meltzer, 2009). For instance, the United States hospitals and healthcare services are energy-intensive ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). Most of the hospitals are open throughout the day; with various energy-intensive activities, such as sophisticated heating, refrigeration, ventilation systems, cooling, computing, sterilization, laundry, continuous use of medical and laboratory equipment, and food services ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). All these activities emit harmful gases (such as sulfur (IV) oxide, carbon (II) oxide, and carbon (IV) oxide) that eventually lead to the greenhouse effect (Hanley, 2015). Besides, these gases the major causes of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, breathing difficulties, and lung infections.
Most of the healthcare facilities are located in urban centers. This means that most of the respiratory diseases accruing from the gases emitted during the incineration of the clinical instruments affect the urban populations ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). This is because the emitted gases are concentrated in urban centers and are directly inhaled by the urban residents causing severe respiratory health issues to the urban populations. Besides, the gases emitted during the incineration of the clinical instruments form a blanket above the urban centers, leading to the greenhouse effect ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). This explains why urban centers are currently experiencing higher temperatures than rural areas.
The effect of the greenhouse effect and eruption of respiratory diseases is felt at the national level. Statistics indicate that the United States ranks as the second nation worldwide in terms of emission of the greenhouse gas; just slightly below after China (Hanley, 2015). Further statistics show that the United States healthcare systems are the second-most energy-intensive commercial buildings in the country, after food services facilities ( Eckelman & Sherman, 2016 ). These two sets of data may be used to conclude that the greenhouse effect and the respiratory infections accruing from the incineration of clinical instruments is a public issue that needs to be addressed at the national level.
Since using incineration method for disposing of surgical instruments, such needles, syringes, scalpels, needles, and lancets, has been found to cause respiratory infections and greenhouse effects, alternative ways of getting rid of the used clinical instruments should be established. Medical institutions should hire medical waste treatment companies to take care of the surgical instruments (Anthony, 2016). All used surgical instruments should be put in safety containers away from reach in children. Once several containers are full, all the surgical instruments should be carried in their containers to the medical waste treatment companies for safe recycling (Anthony, 2016). Moreover, the government should make the recycling of the surgical instruments, a policy, and any healthcare facility that fails to comply with the law should be closed.
Alternatively, the government should ensure that all urban centers have at least a medical waste treatment company to ensure that all healthcare facilities in those urban centers have proximity to the recycling companies. Also, the government should subsidize the transportation and recycling of the clinical instruments. Subsidizing transportation and recycling of the used clinical instruments will minimize the cost of disposing of the clinical instruments, hence making it possible for healthcare systems to abandon the incineration method completely.
Adopting the recycling process as a way of disposing of clinical, surgical instruments has several impacts on the healthcare system. First, there will be a reduction in respiratory diseases within the nation. Reduction in respiratory diseases will translate to decreased congestion in the healthcare facilities; hence, doctors will be useful in eliminating the other ailments. Secondly, the recycled surgical instruments will be sold to the healthcare facilities at a lower price. Therefore, the recycling method of disposing of the surgical instruments will lead to increased profitability in the healthcare systems. Finally, adopting a recycling method of disposing of the clinical waste will display the right image of the healthcare systems to the public. This is because the healthcare systems will have acted as a perfect example in adopting practices that lead to minimizing pollution of the environment.
References
Andrews, S.T. (2019). Waste Disposal - Disposal of Laboratory Wastes (GUIDANCE). Retrieved September 22, 2019; from https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/staff/policy/healthandsafety/publications/waste/waste-disposaloflaboratorywastesguidance/
Chung, JW. Meltzer, DO. (2009). An estimate of the Carbon Footprint of the U.S. Health Care Sector. JAMA : The Journal of the American Medical Association . 302 ( 18 ): 1970.
Eckelman, J., & Sherman, J. (2016). Environmental Impacts of the U.S. Health Care System and Effects on Public Health. 11(6): e0157014. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4900601/
Hanley, M. (2015). Which countries emit the most greenhouse gas? (Online). Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/countries-emitting-most-greenhouse-gas/
Thiel, CL., Eckelman, M., Guido, R., Huddleston, M., Landis, AE., & Sherman, J. (2015). Environmental Impacts of Surgical Procedures: Life Cycle Assessment of Hysterectomy in the United States . Environ Sci Technol . 49 ( 3 ): 1779–1786.
