COLUMN: How your health decisions can help reduce climate change impact of the medicine prescribed in the Highlands
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Climate Week runs from September 25 to October 1 and has been a Scottish Government initiative since 2016, writes Sharon Plfeger, a consultant in pharmaceutical public health at NHS Highland.
The aim of the week is to celebrate and encourage climate action across the country, raising awareness of how people, businesses and organisations can reduce their emissions and promote success stories of the action already undertaken to tackle the climate emergency.
It’s easy to brush climate change off as a problem for future generations. However, this summer has presented the impact of climate change on a weekly basis with melting ice caps, people dying as a result of forest fires, heatwaves and flooding, all of which is very out of character for the time of year. Climate change is already affecting our world and our lives, and it affects us in more ways than we might realise.
The World Health Organisation states that climate change is the biggest health threat facing humanity by endangering the essential ingredients of good health: clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe homes. It could undo the last 50 years of progress in health and healthcare. As a health organisation, we at NHS Highland have a moral obligation to do our bit to help tackle it.
The way we provide care can have a major impact on our communities and the environment. Good care is also environmentally sustainable care, which is why NHS Highland has been involved in many projects alongside partner organisations to reduce our environmental impact and deliver environmentally friendly and sustainable healthcare.
Did you know that the medicines we use make up 25 per cent of the NHS’s carbon footprint? You also may not know that the medicines we take every day such as antibiotics, painkillers and anti-depressants negatively impact the environment through water pollution. When we take a medicine we excrete it down our toilets and it ends up in our rivers and oceans. Many of these medicines have already been detected in rivers and lochs across Highland and the rest of Scotland and can have negative effects on soil, the crops that we eat, and aquatic life.
As part of the collaborative One Health Breakthrough Partnership, NHS Highland, the University of the Highlands and Islands and the University of Nottingham are currently working on developing a framework to help prescribers and the public consider the environmental impact of a medicine. This will allow more sustainable prescribing choices to be made, while at the same time ensuring the medicines chosen will still do what they need to do to our bodies to keep us happy and healthy! We need a healthy planet for a healthy population.
Another everyday medicine that has a negative impact on our planet that you may not expect is inhalers. Metered dose inhalers (MDIs) contain a propellant gas with a very high carbon footprint, whereas the alternative dry powder inhalers (DPIs) do not contain gases, so they are much more environmentally friendly to the atmosphere. Scientific evidence also shows that using DPIs can help people to manage their asthma more effectively and results in fewer deaths from asthma. We are working with patients to make sure that their asthma control is as good as it can be, because healthier lungs are also greener lungs.
Using DPIs to more effectively control symptoms is just one aspect of improving lung disease care with the added benefit of reducing the environmental impact of inhaler prescribing. It is also really important that if you have lung disease that you attend your annual reviews with your GP, and in between times, if you feel your symptoms are getting worse to ensure you are on the best treatment you can be, which as healthcare providers, is always our top priority.
Finally, every one of us can help the NHS become more sustainable by staying healthy with good nutrition and exercise. Who’d have thought that going for a short walk every day could help the NHS lower our carbon emissions and environmental pollution? Staying fit and healthy can mean less trips to your GP or hospital. Why not have a look at the Highland Green Health Directory to see what’s on offer in your area to keep you healthy?
Keeping our population healthy, providing high quality care, protecting our planet and ensuring that our services are sustainable will always be the top priorities of NHS Highland. You can help us do that.
