MEDICAL GASES AND ANAESTHESIA
The official opening for the new nitrous oxide destruction programme at Hvidovre Hospital. Medclair says the hospital’s Nitrous Oxide Destruction Unit has captured and destroyed 350 kg of N2
CO2
O, equivalent to over 100 tonnes of , in just four months.
labour.” One midwife at Hvidovre Hospital said: “How hampered I felt as a midwife before we got the nitrous oxide back – and what a big difference it made to my daily work to have the gas as a tool in the midwifery toolbox when women are in pain.” Dorte Dahl added: “Nitrous oxide use is clearly highly valued by both patients and staff. When we look at our statistics for nitrous oxide pain relief, about 80% of all women at the hospital use it during labour. Some women use it briefly; others throughout the birth. Some use it while lying in bed, others in the bathtub or sitting on a ball next to the bed. One of the gas’s biggest advantages is that fact that patients can self-administer it.” One woman said following labour: “The nitrous oxide was the most important thing during my labour. Both the midwife and my husband were of great support, but the greatest support was the gas.”
Nitrous oxide’s climate impact Nitrous oxide thus has major benefits for both women in labour and the staff caring for them. However, as previously discussed, it has a major climate footprint, and in fact the impact of four hours of intermittent use of nitrous oxide mixed with oxygen equates to that of driving 1,400 kms in a car.3
The ability to capture and destroy exhaled nitrous oxide thus not UK availabilty
In the UK Medclair nitrous oxide destruction technology is sold though the company’s partners: n Mobile nitrous oxide destruction technology: BPR Medical Gas Control.
n Central nitrous oxide destruction technology: BeaconMedæs.
A ‘climate and staff-friendly’ installation with the Central Nitrous Oxide Destruction Unit. Inset: Some of the data on the energy used, and the N2
O
destroyed, by the new system from Medclair.
only protects staff in, say, a Maternity unit, from the effects of over-exposure, but also helps reduce global warning by preventing release of the gas to atmosphere – factors that are now clearly recognised in many countries. The environmental problem of nitrous oxide in obstetrics is indeed recognised both in the October 2020 NHSE/I publication, Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service,4
and in an article
titled ‘Cracking the environmental problem of nitrous oxide in obstetrics’, published in the journal, Anaesthesia in March this year.5
The latter says: ‘The shared
responsibility for the environment relies on us as clinicians to endorse this technique, and on our patients to embrace it. The introduction of a system which reduces the environmental impact of nitrous oxide, enabling women to choose pain relief without concerns they are harming the planet, is a medical advance that justifies a place in delivery units across the UK.’
Use in Swedish healthcare since 2004 This brings us on to our nitrous oxide destruction technology; in fact such technology has been used in Swedish healthcare since 2004,6
Swedish
Guests and speakers at the official opening included politicians, the hospital’s management team, the Estates team, maternity staff, environmental staff, and partners from industry.
44 Health Estate Journal June 2023
politicians having become aware of the carbon footprint of nitrous oxide from the gas’s use in Maternity settings. Medclair Research and Development manager, Olesya Nikonova, explains: “The technology that our nitrous oxide destruction systems use is based around the direct catalytic decomposition reaction of N2
O gas into air (nitrogen and oxygen).
This catalytic reaction is an exothermic reaction, meaning that additional heat
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