IHEEM 2019 REGIONAL CONFERENCE
The impact of anaesthetic gases on global warming
With the impact of human activity on the global climate very much in the news, September’s IHEEM 2019 Regional Conference & Exhibition in Cardiff saw speakers discuss climate change’s wide-ranging impact on the operation and use of healthcare facilities – from patient comfort, internal temperatures, and staff productivity, to plant operation and building condition, as well as the healthcare estate’s contribution to carbon footprint and global warming. In a morning presentation, Mike Ralph, FIHEEM, Principal engineer at NHSI/NHSE, and chair of the IHEEM Medical Gases Technical Platform, examined the contribution of medical gases and volatile anaesthetic agents to global warming, and discussed what can be done to mitigate it.
The one-day conference, entitled ‘Heatwave’ in the wake of some of the more extreme summer temperatures seen in the UK in recent years, began with a welcome from Graham Stanton, who is chair of the IHEEM AE (D) Registration Board. Recently retired, he worked in the Welsh NHS for 43 years, 35 of them spent in the sterilisation and decontamination field. During that time, he represented the Welsh Health Service in the formation of national guidance – both for Wales and the Department of Health in England, led audits for the Welsh Government, and was instrumental in setting up and chairing active decontamination groups in both Sterile Services and Endoscopy. He was an Authorised Person (Sterilisers) from 1995 until July 2008, when he became an AE (D). Graham Stanton has been a member of the Institute’s Wales Branch since 1975, and has served the Branch on IHEEM’s Council. He is also IHEEM’s representative on the Decontamination Professional Expert Communication Forum.
Setting the scene After a few words to the audience, and a welcome to Cardiff, Graham Stanton handed over to the Institute’s President, Ian Hinitt – in his ‘day job’ deputy director of Estates at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust. Ian Hinitt began by asking the audience, rhetorically, what they reckoned Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan might have thought about climate change, and growing recent evidence of how serious the problem now is, had he been alive for the past 2-3 decades. As healthcare built
An informed and knowledgeable audience enjoyed a range of interesting presentations and put some good questions to the speakers.
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, of the London School of Economics and Political Science, has said that those who say climate change doesn’t exist are now perceived as the ‘flat earthers’.
environment professionals, Ian Hinitt believed those working in healthcare engineering and estate management had ‘a moral obligation to minimise the impact of their activities on climate change in supporting the core values of the NHS’ – including improve public health. The two were ‘intrinsically linked’. He said: “Today’s programme of 11 expert speakers on many diverse and contemporary climate change-related topics will give an insight into some of the major challenges we all face in ensuring both a sustainable planet, and good public health for all for the future. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, once said: ‘The only thing that is constant is change.’ “Fortunately,” Ian Hinitt continued, “engineers understand the principles of change, and are able to innovate, adapt, and resolve problems; that’s what we do – we harness the power of
change in heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and the forces of change in structural engineering and construction, in power generation, and in energy distribution, and all of this, of course, is linked to carbon. Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, of the London School of Economics and Political Science, an eminent man, has said that those who say climate change doesn’t exist are now perceived as the ‘flat earthers’, as were those who denied the link between smoking and cancer. So, climate change is real, and is linked to human activity, and we must match the pace of change to sustain everything we value as good and wholesome.”
A fast-rising population Ian Hinitt noted that while in 1960 the world’s population was 3 billion; today it is 7.7 bn. He said: “Life expectancy in the UK in 1900 was just 46, and in the Millennium, 77; currently it is 81.” Meanwhile, since climate records began in 1980, the global temperature had increased by 0.8˚C – with two-thirds of the increase in global warning occurring since 1997. He added: “Some might think 0.8˚C is inconsequential, but to put that
January 2020 Health Estate Journal 37
London School of Economics and Political Science
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