A new study has found that the American health care sector accounts for 8 percent of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.

The study, conducted by University of Chicago researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, measured how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the health care industries (hospitals, scientific research, pharmaceuticals, etc) released. It is the first-of-its-kind calculation of health care’s carbon footprint.

Using the environmental input-output life cycle assessment (EIOLCA) model of environmental impact developed by the Green Design Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University, the researchers were able to determine exactly how much health care activities directly and indirectly affected the environment.

Not surprisingly, hospitals release the largest amount of carbon emissions, mainly due to their high energy needs for temperature control, ventilation and lighting in large and often aging and poorly structured hospital buildings. But interestingly, the second largest contributor of carbon emissions was the pharmaceutical industry, primarily because of associated manufacturing and transportation.

While the researchers realize that hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are more concerned with treating people than the environment, they hope that the results of this study will encourage them to look at ways of providing health care and researching and developing drugs in a more environmentally friendly way.

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According to a new report released last week, hospitals and their emergency vehicles are contributing to the increasing number of asthma cases and respiratory illnesses around the world.

This is not because of poor health services. Rather, it is because hospitals and emergency vehicles are high-energy users creating toxic emissions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) report suggests that hospitals need to state looking at alternative forms of energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines, to power their facilities. Other actions that suggested include using energy-efficient light bulbs, buying organic foods and more efficient and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Some hospitals are already trying to go greener.

For example, last year the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom did a public sector analysis of its carbon dioxide use. This analysis showed that the NHS emissions in 2004 were 18.6 tons or 3% of all carbon emissions in England.

Further breakdown of the analysis indicated that one-fifth of the emissions were from transport, one-fifth from buildings and the remainder from procurement, including drugs, medical equipment and food.

So earlier this year, the NHS announced efforts to cut the organization’s carbon emissions with tactics that include offering fewer meat and dairy products.

Will U.S. hospitals follow suit?

Given that the WHO says the U.S. health sector’s use of electricity adds over $600 million per year in direct health costs and more than $5 billion in other costs, it probably would be a good idea. And it looks like hospitals in New York City agree.

Last week, 13 hospital systems that manage a total of 35 hospitals in the city got together and pledged to reduce their carbon footprints by 30% over the next decade.

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