Environmental Life Cycle Assessment in Medical Practice: A User's Guide.

Abstract

The environmental impacts of medical practice are becoming more important as the unsustainable activities of global societies continue to damage the environment and contribute to health problems. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology to quantify a wide range of environmental impacts, including global warming, over the full life cycle of products, processes, and systems, to allow for data-driven environmental decisions. This article introduces the concepts, terminology, and methodology of LCA using examples from the medical industry. It provides guidance and best practices for the standard steps of an LCA study. A review of the literature was done to provide examples of the use of LCA and carbon footprints in medicine. Hypothetical medical products were modeled using LCA software to illustrate the capabilities and limitations of this method. Life cycle assessment examples in medicine illustrate the ability of this method to compare environmental impacts for products that perform the same function. They also highlight the relative scale of damage across all life cycle phases for a variety of environmental impact categories. Resources have also been provided for various useful LCA tools. Life cycle assessment can provide medical practitioners with quantified environmental metrics in order to make decisions that minimize the environmental impacts of medical products, processes, and systems. Carbon footprints are LCA studies that focus only on the impact of climate change. Life cycle assessment is expected to grow as a tool for environmental decisions in medical practice.