You are here:
Reducing the Ecological Footprint of Pharmaceutical Usage: Linkages Between Healthcare Practices and the Environment
Citation:
DAUGHTON, C. G. AND I. RUHOY. Reducing the Ecological Footprint of Pharmaceutical Usage: Linkages Between Healthcare Practices and the Environment. Chapter 6, Klaus Kummerer and Maximilian Hempel (ed.), Green and Sustainable Pharmacy. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, , 77-102, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
A confluence of advancements is currently at work in bringing sustainability in quality healthcare closer to reality. These include information technology, personalized medicine, medical genetics (and epigenetics), green chemistry (e.g., applied to drug design, formulation, manufacturing, and packaging), targeted drug delivery, and the worldwide initiatives called “medications management” and “pharmaceutical care.” Together, these areas will largely dictate the shape and size of the environmental footprint for tomorrow’s armamentarium of medications.
Description:
The design of pharmaceuticals and the practices surrounding the lifecycle of their manufacture and usage are central to minimize their impacts on the environment and increase the sustainability of healthcare. Cradle-to-cradle design, as conceptualized by McDonough and Braungart, could play a key role in redesigning healthcare and reducing its environmental footprint (Daughton 2003). This chapter examines the following thesis involving the environmental sustainability of medication usage: “When actions designed to reduce the potential for environmental impact are integrated within the existing systems of pharmacopeia, pharmacy, and healthcare, significant natural collateral outcomes include improvements in the quality and efficiency of healthcare and in human well-being.” The major factors that could shape the future for sustainability of healthcare are discussed.