The press release below is from the University of Copenhagen Department of Chemistry. The anesthetic gases isofluran, desflurane and sevoflurane are coming under scrutiny for global warming potential. However, what isn’t stated in the press release is this important paragraph of the scientific paper :
There are no production numbers available in the literature
for the anaesthetic agents. The three compounds have not yet been observed in the free atmosphere, and current atmospheric levels are expected to be small (of the order of part per trillion/volume). At these concentrations, when viewed in isolation, their present contribution to the relative forcing of climate change is negligible in comparison with the current forcing of 1.7 Watts/sq meter due to CO2.
Later though, even though they admit they have no numbers on the production quantity of these anaesthetic agents, and “the three compounds have not yet been observed in the free atmosphere”, they use some SWAG to make this claim:
Hence, we conclude that global emissions of inhalation anaesthetics, when measured by the 100 yr GWP, have a contribution to the radiative forcing of climate change which is comparable with that of the CO2 emissions from one coal-fired power plant or approximately 1 million passenger cars.
Gosh, more than a whole coal-fired power plant! Somebody tell China immediately so they can stop building two a week.
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Neglected greenhouse gas discovered by atmosphere chemists
When doctors want their patients asleep during surgery they gently turn the gas tap. But Anaesthetic gasses have a global warming potential as high as a refrigerant that is on its way to be banned in the EU. Yet there is no obligation to report anaesthetic gasses along with other greenhouse gasses such as CO2, refrigerants and laughing gas.
Significantly worse than CO2
One kilo of anaesthetic gas affects the climate as much as 1620 kilos of CO2. That has been shown by a recent study carried out by chemists from University of Copenhagen and NASA in collaboration with anaesthesiologists from the University of Michigan Medical School. The amount of gas needed for a single surgical procedure is not high, but in the US alone surgery related anaesthetics affected the climate as much as would one million cars.Tænk før bedøvelse
Think before you gas them
Analyses of the anaesthetics were carried out by Ole John Nielsen. He is a Professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, and he’s got an important message for doctors.
“We studied three different gasses in regular use for anaesthesia, and they’re not equally harmful,” explains Professor Nielsen.
All three are worse than CO2 but where the mildest ones Isoflurane and Sevoflurane have global warming potentials of 210 and 510 respectively, Desflurane the most harmful will cause 1620 times as much global warming as an equal amount of CO2, explains the professor.
“This ought to make anaesthesiologists sit up and take notice. If all three compounds have equal therapeutic worth, there is every reason to choose the one with the lowest global warming potential”, says professor Ole John Nielsen.
Inspired by maternity ward
The three anaesthetic gasses isofluran, desflurane and sevoflurane were studied at the Ford atmospheric laboratories in Michigan. Mads Andersen of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories collaborated on the analyses with his former PhD supervisor Ole John Nielsen. He relates how he got the idea for the study while his wife was giving birth.
“The anaesthesiologist told me, that the gas used is what we chemist know as a halogenated compound. That’s the same family of compound as the Freon that was famously eating the ozone layer back in the eighties” says research scientist Mads Andersen.
On the map with ozone eaters replacement
Freon is a compound that Andersen knows well. It got his supervisor Professor Nielsen on the scientific map. With a global warming potential of a whopping 11.000 the refrigerant Freon has been banned all over the world since 1992. When the search was on for an alternative to the harmful substance Nielsen analysed just how much heat was retained by new compounds, and how long they would stay in the atmosphere. His methods went to prove, that the refrigerant HFC134a had a global warming potential of 1.300 and left the atmosphere in just 14 years to freons 50 to 100 years.Det gode viger pladsen for det endnu bedre
HFC-134a has spared the atmosphere a considerable climate effect. But it too is being prohibited all across the European Union. And unless therapeutic arguments speak for using all three, sevoflurane should be the only legal anaesthetic gas as shown by the study done by NASA, Ford and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen.
The study was published in the renowned medical journal “British Journal of Anaestecia”.
PDF of original science paper here
Ever wonder why we don’t use ether anymore? First off, it’s highly flammable and it’s also very unpleasant for patients who would wretch and vomit for hours after surgery. They don’t use cyclopropane anymore because it is explosive (but a very good anesthetic). Nitrous oxide isn’t potent enough to put a patient completely out (i.e. you have to dilute it with too much O2). These halogenated hydrocarbons were not laboratory accidents. They have to be very potent to allow them to be mixed with sufficient O2. They can’t be flammable. They can’t cause liver or brain damage. They need to be associated with the least possible degree of nausea. They have to have very specific vapor pressures and characteristics. Many years of research and development went into these drugs. It’s also amazing how little is actually needed. I’ve seen 2 hour long surgeries that that required much less than 100 mL of Forane.
Any anesthesiologist can rattle off a specific list of reasons for using any one particular drug. They have dozens of patient variables to consider. They even have to consider elevation and atmospheric pressure (the local hospital is at 7,000 ft above sea level). I’d be willing to bet the LAST thing they would ever consider is reactivity with stratospheric ozone or GHG potential.
@Oldseadog
Its 18 in the Netherlands as well (16 for beer), but to honour our Japanese friends who kindly declined to participate any longer in the Kyoto protocol i say we raise that age to 21. Afteral in Japan you are not allowed to drink, smoke or vote until you are 21 years old.
Is me or should this study (like so many others related to climate) be presented as IG-Nobel candidate?
the sun creates ozone, the sun destroys ozone. what hoax is next?
“… the current forcing of 1.7 Watts/sq meter due to CO2.”
Ok, how does something, CO2, that is ~391 ppm in the atmosphere contribute 1.7 Watts/sq meter considering the total solar watts per square meter various parts of the Earth receive. (It’s a lot less in Vancouver than in California for example).
It sure would be really nice if every “number” with units had it’s derivation explained.
Maybe Watts, [:)], could explain watts per square meter of CO2 to those of us scratching our heads over the whole greenhouse gas kerfuffle which I still don’t get (either it’s me or it’s their silly greenhouse theory) and put all the various sources of energy and power into perspective? Somehow it’s all very confusing that a trace gas that has a specific heat that it has can magically warm the atmosphere as much as it is alleged to. It seems to defy the notion of specific heat capacity.
When you take the specific heat of the atmosphere as it currently is (~391 ppm) and compute what the specific heat of the atmosphere would be with a 1000ppm of CO2 the amount of “warming” from that adjusted atmospheric mix specific heat capacity is a negligible rise, almost not worth mentioning at all. Basically when you rise the ratio of CO2 from 391 to 1000 ppm the specific heat capacity of the mixed atmosphere changes so that it can warm a wee tiny bit more than with the lower amount of CO2 in the mix, but it’s so tiny that counting angels on the head of a pin would be a more interesting exercise (which is to say it’s pointless to be concerned about at all).
Thanks in advance for the explaination of specific heat capacity and watts per square meter Watts!
Dave the Engineer says:
December 5, 2010 at 4:10 am
Yeah, I’m paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
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Dave, it’s not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you. 😉
How many kilos of those gasses are used per year? This is like that ridiculous faux report that predicted AGW would cause kidney stones. Or the one that claimed tropical constrictors would be living wild in Kansas thanks to CO2 in the atmosphere.
It would be nice to know the half-life of those gasses in the atmosphere- how long it takes for them to degrade in the rough and tumble of the atmosphere?
The main reason for banning refrigerants has been explained to me by my car mechanic… He said it is funny to see how refrigerants, since the first ban on the first version of freon, have been deemed “dangerous” for some reason or another, but never before the patent on them expired. Every time, they come up with a new one, and phase out the old one for which the patent was expired. Every time, you need new equipment in garages that can handle the new gas, new replacement parts, conversion kits on cars for air conditioning units. A whole industry flourishes. And every time a new refrigerant is phased out and a new one comes up, the new equipment comes at a premium, under the premise that this new gas requires more sacrifices, being not as easy to use as the former, but “really worth it for the environment…”. So they charge more and more.
They are in their third of such cycle at the moment, and another one is coming up.
This is nothing more than a refrigeration cycle, pumping energy out of our pockets, and into theirs…
Greenhouse gases trap light and cause the earth to warm. Thus , it follows that we should immediately ban all artifical light since it contributes to global warming. I need a grant to study how large a problem artifical light is and how best to ban it. s/o
It’s the crock of doom!
Hey, if you can’t “purify the race” without starting a World War, why not try purifying the environment?
“Obsessive-compulsive controllists of the World, unite!”
Nothing is safe from these folks. Nothing. I’ve heard it said there are people who want us living in mud huts and dying at 30. I thought it was an exaggeration. Now I’m not so sure.
“Think before you gas them”, indeed. Some of them might be useful as Slaves.
From the Wikipedia Desflurane entry, first paragraph:
Works good and fast, seeing more use, but not good for the third world as it costs more so they’ll be staying with the isoflurane. As the study reveals, desflurane is the absolute worst for the planet, sevoflurane is also very bad, isoflurane is the least worst so I guess we can call it the best choice of the bunch.
So once again, what’s good for the third world is best for the planet, is best for everyone!
Strange how this (C)AGW research keeps showing that, eh? ☺
“With a global warming potential of a whopping 11.000 the refrigerant Freon has been banned all over the world since 1992.”
My recollection is that Freon was banned to protect the ozone layer, not because of any greenhouse concerns. Not that many journalists would notice the difference.
I’m telling you all right now, the CO2 in beer and soda pop are in the warmers sight as the next threat to the Earth.
Peter-
The ozone layer rebuilds itself every time it gets hit by a solar flare.
The CFC scam was the first of many.
[d]
I’m telling you all right now, the CO2 in beer and soda pop are in the warmers sight as the next threat to the Earth.
And that’s a doubleplusgood message!
Pamela Gray says: December 5, 2010 at 7:47 am
One of these days, studies like this one will be used in place of laughing gas. Works just as well.
I believe the investigators in this experiment are addicted to laughing gas, and consumed it while writing this paper.
A quote from the study:
As a provider of anesthesia on a daily basis, I can assure you the chance of these agents being withdrawn from use is ZERO.
Wien’s displacement law states that at 290K a blackbody has its peak at 9.99 micrometers, which is not the case in the figure.
vukcevic (December 5, 2010 at 6:16 am) :”Just came across this, some may find it interesting, others may think is hilarious … relatively small solar forcing may play a significant role in century-scale NH winter climate change … Authors: Gavin A. Schmidt, Michael E. Mann… SCIENCE VOL 294 7 DECEMBER 2001”
I had a look at the paper. Seems its purpose was to say the Maunder Minimum (which we all know was a solar effect) was only local, and that global temperatures were unaffected.
Not hilarious, sinister.
Further proof that there are way too many scientists in the world asking way too many stupid questions.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eeYt1gOHtiQ/TPwjvoKBSSI/AAAAAAAAAQc/vrjZIT6P-0k/s640/v125+Weather+diversity.jpg
Inhale the smoke from burning marijuana and take some pharmaceutical grade heroin, and the patient will not feel a thing. The stoners and drug dealers are lining this report up for their next run at Proposition 19 in California.
It is unknown how much isofluran, desflurane and sevoflurane have been produced. There are not enough of these three compounds to be detectable in the atmosphere, but the environmentalists are calling for them to be banned anyway on the premise of possible future warming.
I contemplate the stereotype drawn between the lifestyle of some individuals and the political values they espouse.
Where to begin with this? So now climate ‘scientists’ are to advise doctors? Cool. Perhaps they could advise marriage counselors too. I have a little bit of a personal take in all of this since I have a prescription for albuterol sulfate. This was a generic medication that cost about $22. It’s a bronchodilator that opens the thousands of air passages in the lungs. The propellant was freon. The canisters which fit into the mouthpiece were about the size of a thumb and would last about a month if used 3 times a day. But this vital medicine with it’s thumb sized canister of freon was going to destroy the planet. So this long used, safe propellant was switched over to an alcohol based propellant and that meant the medication switched from being a generic to a non-generic. That means those uninsured asthmatic patients in the inner city can now spend $40 a month for what is referred to as a ‘rescue’ medication compared to the $20 they spent before. But, heh, those climate scientists are saving our lives.