The NHS carbon reduction strategy
BMJ 2009; 338 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b326 (Published 28 January 2009) Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b326All rapid responses
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In his editorial(1) Ian Roberts states unequivocally that ”Climate
change kills at least 150 000 people each year”. Is this pronouncement
evidence based? The paper (2) the professor refers to is not a research
publication but a review and anyway it does not contain the aforementioned
number. This figure actually appears in another Lancet review (3): “On
aggregate, it was estimated that climate change may already (by 2000) be
causing in the region of 150 000 deaths”
This statement is in turn taken from the World Health Report(4) where we
learn: “Climate change was estimated to be responsible in 2000 for
approximately 2.4% of worldwide diarrhoea, 6% of malaria in some middle
income countries and 7% of dengue fever in some industrialized countries.
In total, the attributable mortality was 154 000 (0.3%) deaths”.
And here
the trail ends. No further references are given, which is hardly
surprising. The report just mentions some convoluted mathematical
modelling (most likely based on the same methodology as all these
financial models predicting GDP). I shall conclude with a statement of my
own:
“The recent cholera mortality in Zimbabwe would have been 2.4 % lower if
it were not for climate change.” I will let you judge if this is a fact or
an estimate or hubris.
1. I.Roberts The NHS carbon reduction strategy. BMJ 2009;338:b326
2. McMichael A, Woodruf R, Hales S. Climate change and human health:
present and future risks. Lancet 2006;367: 859-69
3. A Haines, R S Kovats, D Campbell-Lendrum, C Corvalan Climate
change and human health: impacts,
vulnerability, and mitigation Lancet 2006; 367: 2101–09
4. The World Health Report 2002: Reducing risk promoting healthy
life.
WHO Geneva 2002
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Doctors and the NHS carbon reduction strategy
I read with interest the article on ‘The NHS carbon reduction
strategy’ (1). The editorial rightly points out that doctors have ‘a
professional duty to work to tackle climate change’, and tackling climate
change is ‘part of the doctor’s role’.
The recently published NHS Draft Carbon reduction strategy ‘Saving
Carbon, Improving Health’ says ‘It is the organisations and people of the
NHS who are responsible for the carbon, so it is up to us to reduce it’.
It is recommended that NHS organisations review the need to travel where
alternatives such as teleconferencing or videoconferencing are a viable
alternative.
As the son of two doctors I have observed that NHS consultants like
to travel, especially to conferences and usually the further away the
better. In 2007 my father attended his speciality association’s
international annual conference in Edinburgh. It was attended by 310
delegates, of whom 166 were from overseas. Presuming that flying was the
most common form of transport, even for the majority of UK members,
delegates (excluding accompanying persons) accumulated over 1.13 million
miles which equates to 262 tones of CO2 (2). This is only a drop in the
ocean of the 18 million tons of CO2 for which the NHS is responsible, but
if every NHS consultant was ‘responsible’ for generating a similar carbon
footprint for a single speciality annual meeting this would account for 1%
of the annual NHS Travel Sector profile.
An increasing use of ever more effective audio and video conferencing
would achieve most of the educational and research value of such meetings.
However, the social and networking aspects of our meetings might be
diminished. Will sacrifices such as this have to be made to reach these
targets? Doctors can help the NHS do something about climate change but I
suggest they must start by putting their own house in order.
The challenge ‘to meet and exceed the national target to reduce NHS
carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050’, seems bizarre. I have not yet
started to work for the NHS and by 2050 I may have even retired. This
makes it likely for doctors of my generation to ask the question; perhaps
it will be easier to leave this target to the next generation?
1. I.Roberts The NHS carbon reduction strategy. BMJ 2009;338:b326
2. Calculations – www.climatecare.org
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests