Anaesthesia Waste Gases and Bioethics
Balancing Patient Care, Environmental Responsibility, and Occupational Safety
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19517118 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shibu Sasidharan (0000-0003-2991-7595, Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Emergency Medicine Base Hospital Delhi Cantt New Delhi India, corresponding author), Harpreet Dhillon (0000-0001-5956-874X, Department of Addiction Psychiatry Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Chandigarh India) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Developing World Bioethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1471-8731 • E-ISSN: 1471-8847 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/dewb.12489 |
| PMID | 40517413 |
| OpenAlex | W4411317518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Anaesthesia waste gases (AWGs) represent a significant yet often overlooked contributor to healthcare's environmental footprint, with implications extending beyond ecological concerns to encompass occupational hazards and complex ethical considerations. This article examines the intersection of AWGs and bioethics through the framework of environmental stewardship, occupational health principles, patient‐centered care, and distributive justice. Contemporary volatile anaesthetics possess global warming potentials thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide, while implicated occupational exposures raise concerns about reproductive health and neurological function among healthcare workers. The bioethical paradigms of principalism—encompassing nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice—and environmental ethics provide structured approaches to addressing these multifaceted challenges. This review synthesizes current evidence regarding AWGs' environmental and occupational impacts, evaluates emerging mitigation strategies, and proposes an integrated ethical framework to guide clinical practice, institutional policy, and professional standards in anaesthesiology
Autonomy · Beneficence · Bioethics · Business · Engineering ethics · Environmental ethics · Environmental health ethics · Health care · Political science · Politics · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Engineering · Healthcare cost, quality, practices · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Health Policy
The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics
A Perfect Moral Storm
Seeking Better Health Care Outcomes
Nitrous Oxide (N 2 O)
A Perfect Moral Storm
Managing the health effects of climate change
The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
Green bioethics, patient autonomy and informed consent in healthcare
Non-clinical uses of antipsychotics in resource-constrained long-term care facilities
International comparison of health care carbon footprints
Impacts of Climate Change on Caribbean Life
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |