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Letters to the Editor
Better quality of care equals better carbon footprint?
  1. Sui Hsien Wong
  1. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9RT, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sui Hsien Wong, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9RT, UK; suiwong{at}doctors.org.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2018-002049

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    What is your neurological carbon footprint?

    Carbon emissions contribute to climate change. Climate change affects health.1 Knowing our carbon footprint is the first step to improving this situation. Below are some calculated emissions relevant to a neurologist. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints; kgCO2e is the amount of CO2e in kilograms. It expresses the impact of each different greenhouse gas in terms of the amount of CO2 that would create the same amount of global warming.

    Carbon footprint for brain scans:i

    MR brain non-contrast scan = 10 kgCO2e …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors SHW wrote this article.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned. Externally peer reviewed by Neil Anderson, Auckland, New Zealand.

    • ↵Source: Sustainability Development Unit, NHS England and Public Health England—link online to spreadsheet used for carbon calculation and assumptions made for calculations (see online supplementary file).

    • ↵Source for carbon calculation: Sustainability Development Unit, NHS England and Public Health England. The above assumes a 20-mile distance from the regional neuroscience centre to the local hospital, that is, 40-mile return journey; and average distance of 8 miles from patient home to local hospital, that is, 16-mile return journey.

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