(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, D.C. - The gases used to knock out surgery patients are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere, where they make a small contribution to climate change, report scientists who have detected the compounds as far afield as Antarctica. Over the past decade, concentrations of the anesthetics desflurane, isoflurane and sevoflurane have been rising globally, the new study finds.
Like the well-known climate warmer carbon dioxide, anesthesia gases allow the atmosphere to store more energy from the Sun. But unlike carbon dioxide, the medical gases are extra potent in their greenhouse-gas effects.
One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of desflurane, for instance, is equivalent to 2,500 kilograms (5,512 pounds) of carbon dioxide in terms of the amount of greenhouse warming potential, explained Martin Vollmer, an atmospheric chemist at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology in Dubendorf, Switzerland, who led the new study. "On a kilogram-per-kilogram basis, it's so much more potent" than carbon dioxide, he said.
In a new scientific paper, Vollmer and his colleagues report the 2014 atmospheric concentration of desflurane as 0.30 parts per trillion (ppt). Isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane came in at 0.097 ppt, 0.13 ppt and 0.0092 ppt, respectively. Carbon dioxide - which hit 400 parts per million in 2014 -is a billion times more abundant than the most prevalent of these anesthetics. The team did not include the common anesthesia nitrous oxide in the study because it has many sources other than anesthetics. The team's anesthesia-gas findings have been published online in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
The researchers obtained their numbers by collecting samples of air from remote sites in the Northern Hemisphere since 2000, as well as aboard the icebreaker research vessel Araon during an expedition in the North Pacific in 2012 and at the South Korea Antarctic station King Sejong in the South Shetland Islands. They have also been tracking the anesthetics since 2013 in two-hourly measurements at a high-altitude observatory at Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, and from ongoing air sampling from a rooftop in a suburb of Zurich, Switzerland.
To turn these air samples into their global emissions estimates, the data were combined with a two-dimensional computer model of atmospheric transport and chemistry. The results are the first so-called top-down estimates--based on actual atmospheric measurements--of how many metrics tons of each anesthetic were released into the atmosphere in 2014. That can now be compared to "bottom-up" estimates by other researchers, which estimate atmospheric concentrations based on factors such as how much of each gas is sold annually, how much typically escapes through operating room vents and how much is not metabolized by patients.
Although anesthetics are small players in overall human-generated greenhouse emissions, they are a growing matter of concern to many in the health-care industry. Anesthesia gas abundances are growing and should not be overlooked, said Yale University School of Medicine anesthesiologist Jodi Sherman, a reviewer of the GRL paper.
"Health care in and of itself in the U.S. is one of the worst polluting industries," she explained. "It generates 8 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases according to one study. Add to this the fact that climate change has been recognized by the World Health Organization as the number one health issue of the 21st century, and it behooves us to do a better job with emissions."
Anesthesia gases are something that the health care industry can easily do something about, Sherman added. Dropping desflurane, for instance, would make sense because it is the most potent greenhouse gas of the bunch. Not all anesthesiologists agree with that strategy, however.
"What the report fails to note is that a major factor determining the environmental effect is the manner in which the anesthetics are used," said anesthesiologist Edmond Eger of the University of California at San Francisco. "Many anesthetists deliver sevoflurane or isoflurane in a two - three liters per minute flow but deliver desflurane in a lower flow - 0.5 to one liter per minute .... Some believe that desflurane has clinical advantages that argue for its continued use."
"There's nothing unique about desflurane that we can't do with other drugs," Sherman countered. "Desflurane we could live without, and every little bit makes a difference."
INFORMATION:
The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing more than 60,000 members in 139 countries. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our other social media channels.
AGU Contact:
Nanci Bompey
+1 (202) 777-7524
nbompey@agu.org
The following press release and accompanying image can be found at: http://news.agu.org/press-release/anesthetic-gases-raise-earths-temperature-a-little-while-you-sleep/
In a recent study, females with eating disorders in late adolescence were more likely to have lower levels of educational attainment and personal income in early adulthood. They were also less likely to own a home. These associations were not seen in males.
Disordered eating behaviors may set some individuals on a different trajectory whereby they do not have the same life chances or opportunities for success in adulthood.
"Although the negative physical and mental health consequences of eating disorders have been well documented, much less is known about the adult ...
Sustainable rooftop technologies--including green roofs, white roofs, and solar photovoltaic panels--can provide great environmental benefits, but studies of these technologies often look only at their use in hot climates and do not assess their full environmental consequences.
A new study that compares the technologies in the cold Canadian climate shows that photovoltaic panels demonstrate the highest environmental performance in all impact categories considered and is the preferred option from an environmental perspective. Green roofs result in fewer beneficial environmental ...
The number of gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa continues to decline due to hunting, habitat loss, and disease, combined with a widespread lack of law enforcement and corruption in the judicial process, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF, and partners in a new conservation plan.
A new report--titled "Regional Action Plan for the Conservation of Western Lowland Gorillas and Central Chimpanzees 2015-2025"--outlines the growing number of threats to these great apes across six range countries, including ...
Uninsured cancer patients are asked to pay anywhere from two to 43 times what Medicare would pay for chemotherapy drugs, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Researchers led by Stacie Dusetzina, an assistant professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Gillings School of Global Public Health, reviewed newly available Medicare data on what physicians charged for chemotherapy drugs delivered intravenously in 2012.
Uninsured patients who did not negotiate the billed amounts could expect to pay $6,711 for an infusion of ...
TAMPA, Fla. - Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer and the number one cause of cancer-related mortality. It is estimated that more than 158,000 people will die from lung cancer in the United States this year. Many scientists believe that targeting a type of cell called a cancer stem cell may be necessary to completely cure lung cancer. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers discovered a novel mechanism that plays an important role in the maintenance of lung cancer stem cells. This finding may lead to new potential therapeutic targets.
Cancer stem cells are ...
Among a sample of veterans in Connecticut, a substantial number had individuals listed as next of kin who were not nuclear family members, according to a study in the April 7 issue of JAMA. State default consent statutes do not universally recognize such persons as decision makers for incapacitated patients.
For patients who lose capacity and have no legally appointed surrogate decision maker, most states have laws that specify a hierarchy of persons who may serve as surrogate decision makers by default. A patient's spouse is usually given priority, followed by adult ...
WASHINGTON D.C., April 7, 2015 - As we approach the miniaturization limits of conventional electronics, alternatives to silicon-based transistors--the building blocks of the multitude of electronic devices we've come to rely on--are being hotly pursued.
Inspired by the way living organisms have evolved in nature to perform complex tasks with remarkable ease, a group of researchers from Durham University in the U.K. and the University of São Paulo-USP in Brazil is exploring similar "evolutionary" methods to create information processing devices.
In the Journal of ...
PHILADELPHIA - In a study involving more than 31,000 women with cancer-causing mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, researchers at The Basser Center for BRCA, the Abramson Cancer Center, and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania identified mutations that are associated with significantly different risks of breast and ovarian cancers. Authors say the results - which show that some mutations confer higher risks of breast cancer, while other mutations show higher risks of ovarian cancer - may lead to more effective cancer risk assessment, care ...
Bodies found in a 200 year-old Hungarian crypt have revealed the secrets of how tuberculosis (TB) took hold in 18th century Europe, according to a research team led by the University of Warwick.
A new study published in Nature Communications details how samples taken from naturally mummified bodies found in an 18th century crypt in the Dominican church of Vác in Hungary have yielded 14 tuberculosis genomes, suggesting that mixed infections were common when TB was at peak prevalence in Europe.
The research team included collaborators from the Universities of Warwick ...
DURHAM, N.C. -- In the four years following the 2008 recession, the coal industry lost more than 49,000 jobs, while the natural gas, solar and wind industries together created nearly four times that amount, according to a new Duke University study.
A county-by-county geographical analysis of the losses and gains shows that few new jobs were added in regions hardest hit by coal's decline, particularly counties in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
"Our study shows it has not been a one-for-one replacement," said senior author Lincoln Pratson. "The counties ...
