The long journey of a benzodiazepine

Abstract

Medications make up 12-25% of health care’s greenhouse gas emissions production. By utilizing a life cycle analysis approach, this article lays out each step of production and disposal and estimates the global journey of a generic clonazepam pill. Generic clonazepam was selected because it is a commonly prescribed medication and is often linked to deprescribing initiatives due to its potential patient harms. A visual map was created to illustrate each step of the medications life cycle, from Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) mining to patient usage. Our findings demonstrate that health care prescribing practices have tangible environmental impacts and manufacturers should continue to invest in operational streamlining to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, there is a need for clinicians and leadership to become more aware of the connection between medication prescription and climate change so that healthcare systems can start to reduce its emission production.