Reducing the adverse environmental impacts of prescribing

UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Reducing the adverse environmental impacts of prescribing Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)

Description

Background: The climate crisis makes it essential that clinicians consider the environmental impacts of prescribing. Canada’s healthcare system contributes 4.6% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of which 1.2% are from drugs. Pharmaceutical production, packaging, and disposal of medications contribute to pollution and GHG emissions. Pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) are especially harmful due to their hydrofluorocarbon propellants. The overuse of medications further compounds these impacts. Aims: This Therapeutics Letter highlights the environmental impacts of prescribing and offers strategies for reducing these impacts. It emphasizes the importance of deprescribing, conservative prescribing, and the role played by patient education and involvement in medication choices. Recommendations: Clinicians should consider environmental impacts when prescribing and choose lower impact or non-pharmacologic therapies when possible. Employ conservative prescribing, review medications regularly and deprescribe where appropriate. Reduce the overprescribing of proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics and consider ways of minimizing packaging waste. Switch patients from pMDIs to dry powder inhalers to reduce GHG emissions. Educating patients on environmental impacts and sustainable practices such as medication disposal to further mitigate climate impacts.

Item Metadata

Title	Reducing the adverse environmental impacts of prescribing
Alternate Title	Therapeutics Letter 143
Creator	Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)
Date Issued	2023-06
Description	Background: The climate crisis makes it essential that clinicians consider the environmental impacts of prescribing. Canada’s healthcare system contributes 4.6% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of which 1.2% are from drugs. Pharmaceutical production, packaging, and disposal of medications contribute to pollution and GHG emissions. Pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) are especially harmful due to their hydrofluorocarbon propellants. The overuse of medications further compounds these impacts. Aims: This Therapeutics Letter highlights the environmental impacts of prescribing and offers strategies for reducing these impacts. It emphasizes the importance of deprescribing, conservative prescribing, and the role played by patient education and involvement in medication choices. Recommendations: Clinicians should consider environmental impacts when prescribing and choose lower impact or non-pharmacologic therapies when possible. Employ conservative prescribing, review medications regularly and deprescribe where appropriate. Reduce the overprescribing of proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics and consider ways of minimizing packaging waste. Switch patients from pMDIs to dry powder inhalers to reduce GHG emissions. Educating patients on environmental impacts and sustainable practices such as medication disposal to further mitigate climate impacts.
Subject	Anti-Bacterial Agents; Climate Change; Deprescriptions; Dry Powder Inhalers; Metered Dose Inhalers; Overdiagnosis; Patient Education; Proton Pump Inhibitors
Genre	Other
Type	Text
Language	eng
Notes	The UBC TI is funded by the BC Ministry of Health to provide evidence-based information about drug therapy. We neither formulate nor adjudicate provincial drug policies.
Date Available	2024-09-25
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI	10.14288/1.0445443
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89285
Affiliation	Medicine, Faculty of; Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Department of
Peer Review Status	Reviewed
Scholarly Level	Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

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