Potential impacts to human health from climate change: A comparative life-cycle assessment of single-use versus reusable devices flexible ureteroscopes
Marlene Thöne, Jan Lask, Jörg Hennenlotter, Matthias Saar, Igor Tsaur, Arnulf Stenzl, Steffen Rausch · 2024
Read Potential impacts to human health from climate change: A comparative life-cycle assessment of single-use versus reusable devices flexible ureteroscopes by Marlene Thöne, Jan Lask, Jörg Hennenlotter, Matthias Saar, Igor Tsaur, Arnulf Stenzl, Steffen Rausch (2024) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11585494.txt.
Description
Marlene Thöne and co-authors weigh the climate cost of kidney stone scopes in this 2024 study. Hospitals are heavy emitters, and urology has begun counting its own footprint. The contest here is between a reusable flexible scope, cleaned and repaired between patients, and a single-use scope thrown away after one case.
The team traced each scope's full life cycle inside one hospital: making, using, cleaning, fixing, and disposal. Emissions were converted into health damage measured in lost healthy life years. A reusable scope, over 133 uses, cost about 1.24 kilograms of carbon dioxide per case. A disposable cost nearly four times that, at 4.93 kilograms. Making the disposable dominated its footprint, while electricity for cleaning and repair drove the reusable's. The authors say the gap is wide enough to guide purchasing toward reuse.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Marlene Thöne, Jan Lask, Jörg Hennenlotter, Matthias Saar, Igor Tsaur, Arnulf Stenzl, Steffen Rausch |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 25 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |