The Pyhrn-Eisenwurzen Klinikum (PEK) Kirchdorf is the first health holding company in Upper Austria to install a state-of-the-art system that effectively filters and recycles climate-damaging anesthetic gases.
“In the future, the exhaled anesthetic gases will no longer flow into the exhaust air, but will be passed through activated carbon filters that are directly connected to the anesthesia machine in the operating room,” says Primaria Silvia Dobler, head of the department of anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. The Pyhrn-Eisenwurzen Klinikum Kirchdorf is a pioneer with this technology.
Background to this pilot project: Four to five percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are caused by the healthcare sector – more than shipping and air traffic combined. Around a quarter of this comes from anesthesia and intensive care medicine. The anesthetic gases exhaled by patients are usually released into the exhaust air, but are harmful to the climate and persist in the atmosphere for many years. The amount of anesthetic gas in a seven-hour operation is about as harmful as a 1,500-kilometer car ride.
