Environmental considerations in the selection of medical staplers: A comparative life cycle assessment

It is estimated that the health care industry produces 8% of the total United States' carbon dioxide emissions. This is in line global with other OECD countries, where the health care industries comprise between 3% and 8% of national carbon dioxide emissions. However, only 0.03% of the $29 billion US National Institutes of Health budget is granted to research focused on increasing sustainability in the healthcare industry. Due to the positive feedback system of the environmental impacts due to healthcare creating more challenges that affect human health, such as global warming the environmental impacts of medicine must be considered more holistically. One area that requires significant attention is the use of disposable medical supplies and their implications for sus-tainability. Disposable medical materials were first introduced for the purpose of infection control, convenience, and cost-savings. However, tradeoffs exist with respect to the indirect costs to society from the environmental impacts that are produced from the use of disposable materials. This study utilized life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze two single use staplers at different price points. These staplers are primarily comprised of metal and plastic components. The more expensive and complex stapler was found to have a greater environmental impact across all of the impact categories analyzed when compared to the less costly and complex single use stapler due to having a greater mass. Dematerializing the single use staplers has the potential to reduce the environmental impacts, however, a durability and use tradeoff must be considered.