Life cycle environmental emissions and health damages from the Canadian healthcare system: An economic-environmental-epidemiological analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Human health is dependent upon environmental health. Air pollution is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and climate change has been identified as the single greatest public health threat of the 21st century. As a large, resource-intensive sector of the Canadian economy, healthcare itself contributes to pollutant emissions, both directly from facility and vehicle emissions and indirectly through the purchase of emissions-intensive goods and services. Together these are termed life cycle emissions. Here, we estimate the extent of healthcare-associated life cycle emissions as well as the public health damages they cause.

Methods and findings

We use a linked economic-environmental-epidemiological modeling framework to quantify pollutant emissions an

SUBMITTER: Eckelman MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6067712 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature