Life cycle assessment perspectives on delivering an infant in the US

Abstract

This study introduces life cycle assessment as a tool to analyze one aspect of sustainability in healthcare: the birth of a baby. The process life cycle assessment case study presented evaluates two common procedures in a hospital, a cesarean section and a vaginal birth. This case study was conducted at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which delivers over 10,000 infants per year. The results show that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), waste disposal, and the production of the disposable custom packs comprise a large percentage of the environmental impacts. Applying the life cycle assessment tool to medical procedures allows hospital decision makers to target and guide efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of healthcare procedures.

Sustainable healthcare and environmental life-cycle impacts of disposable supplies: a focus on disposable custom packs

“…For example, Campion et al utilized LCA to analyze full surgical procedures, including birth and hysterectomy. The results of the birthing study concluded that production of disposable custom packs, the end-of-life impacts of the disposable custom packs, and energy consumption due to HVAC contributed to the highest environmental impacts for both types of birth (cesarean and vaginal) (Campion et al, 2012). The study of four different hysterectomy procedures showed similar findings.…”

“…Products within each custom pack were separated, weighed, and categorized according to the constituent materials. Materials used in each product were identified through manufacturing data and previous studies (Campion et al, 2012). The environmental impact from the production, use, and disposal of each custom pack was analyzed using process life cycle assessment (LCA) as described in Section 1.1.…”

“…The first EOL is 100% municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal of the custom packs, assuming all of the products were opened and used once. Other hospital waste streams were not considered based on previous literature, which concluded that the majority of waste was MSW as opposed to regulated medical waste, though it is acknowledged that the EOL of disposable custom packs depends on the hospital's interpretation of medical waste definitions and may vary by institution (Campion et al, 2012;Thiel et al, 2015). The second EOL scenario separates the cotton towels for laundering and reuse in other hospital departments (such as janitorial or housekeeping), while the rest of pack products were disposed of in MSW.…”

“…According to ISO standards 14040, there are four life cycle stages: 1) goal and scope definition 2) life cycle inventory 3) life cycle impact assessment, and 4) interpretation (ISO, 1997(ISO, , 2010Baumann and Tillman, 2004). LCA has been readily applied and utilized in the product development and building construction industries, yet its use lags within the healthcare industry (Hunt et al, 1996;Junnila et al, 2006;Chung and Meltzer, 2009;Campion et al, 2012;Eckelman et al, 2012). LCA has been recognized by major government agencies, such as the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science Foundation, contributing to increased volumes of LCA studies pertaining to specific industries (Database, 2012;EPA, 2012;NSF, 2014).…”

Comparative life cycle assessment of reused versus disposable dental burs

“…In addition, others have utilized the LCA methodology to investigate hospital procedures, such as hysterectomies and C-sections (Bilec, Landis, Shrake, Thiel, & Woods, 2012;Campion et al, 2012). With regards to the LCAs on medical products, they have shown that reprocessed medical devices are environmentally favorable over disposable medical devices (Hailey et al, 2008;Rutala & Weber, 2001;Shuman & Chenoweth, 2012;Suter et al, 2009).…”