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Monday

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14 comments to Monday

  • #
    David Maddison

    Wokeness and climate delusions affect the medical profession just as badly as any other element of society.

    Within the anaesthetics profession there is a push by some to ban the anaesthetic agent desflurane because it is supposedly an especially powerful greenhouse gas.

    This happens to be a very useful and effective agent which many anaesthetists prefer because of its fast recovery times and other advantages.

    However many woke Australian hospitals have banned, want to ban, or discourage its use because of its supposedly destructive greenhouse effects.

    E.g.

    https://catag.org.au/wp-content/uploads/CATAG-Position-Statement-on-the-formulary-listing-of-desflurane-FINAL.pdf

    https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/ie/projects/reducing-the-use-of-desflurane

    https://greenhospitals.org/news/new-case-study-australia-reducing-environmental-impact-anaesthesia

    https://www.sjog.org.au/news-and-media/media-releases/2024/environment-the-big-winner-in-national-decision-by-st-john-of-god-health-care

    Beyond that, they have invented a new reason to ban it. Supposedly because it and one of its degradation by-products is a “forever chemical” meaning it’s (supposedly) persistent in the environment for a very long time.

    Surely if it’s stable in the environment it means it’s relative unreactive so should do little harm? Stability means little or no chemical reaction?

    E.g. see the following paper:

    “Environmental harm from anaesthesia: the importance of clinical realism and chemical persistence”

    https://www.bjaopen.org/article/S2772-6096%2825%2900114-5/fulltext

    Sevoflurane, desflurane, and isoflurane are all fluorinated compounds that meet PFAS criteria: by definition, they contain at least one fully fluorinated carbon and are highly stable, mobile, and resistant to degradation.7 As such, they contribute not only to global warming, but also to very significant chemical pollution.

    Upon atmospheric release, these agents degrade to trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a terminal PFAS that accumulates in rainwater and surface water globally.7

    The current global mean surface temperature anomaly is already approximately 1.36°C above pre-industrial levels. This means the margin remaining before reaching the critical 1.5°C threshold is much narrower than implied. The climate crisis is a present emergency and mitigation is urgently required, particularly in high-impact domains such as volatile anaesthesia.

    The paper doesn’t actually prove any harm, however.

    And modern chemical analysis equipment can detect vanishingly small quantities of substance so just because something is detectable doesn’t mean it’s bad.

    I’m interested in people’s thoughts on this and any refutation or confirmation you might offer.

    My anaesthetist friend is very concerned that one of his favourite anaesthetic agents will become unavailable everywhere, as it already is at some of the hospitals where he works.

    90

    • #
      TdeF

      300,000 people drown each year. Ban water.

      1 million people die each year from car accidents. Ban cars.

      3 million people each year die from the effects of obesity. Ban food.

      Worst of all, life itself is a sexually transmitted invariably fatal disease. Governments and doctors know this and yet it is permitted, supported and encouraged. Unconscionably.

      Everything is deadly. Deadly needs to be quantified on risk benefit.

      But rapid Global Warming is to be stopped at all costs. Look what happened to the dinosaurs. 150 million years of total domination and all we have left is chicken.

      160

      • #
        Just Thinkin'

        I wonder how many people die because of decisions made by Politicians an Bureaucrats?
        BAN Politicians and Bureaucrats !!!!!

        Over 800 because of directives by DDD and his tail-coat hanger-ons.

        50

      • #
        TdeF

        Also survivors of the end of dinosaurs are crocodiles and sharks. In places both banned and protected based on risk and benefit. And both served as main courses in Australia.

        70

      • #
        RickWill

        The biggest killer is possibly old age. Maybe we should ban old age. I am trying to do that but it takes dedication.

        20

    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      “.. before reaching the critical 1.5°C threshold ..”
      In 1947 a talk-song by Carson Robison was released and became very popular, titled “Life Gits Tee-Jus Don’t It”
      There is no critical 1.5°C threshold and saying so is well past Tee-Jus.

      Whether it is about desflurane or some other chemical used in small amounts (burping cattle), the harm – if any – is unmeasurable regarding climate. Tiresome, boring, tedious.

      90

    • #

      It’s a classic tactic of industry to seek to ban chemicals that are approaching their patent protection … thus forcing people to have to use less effective newer alternatives that have patent protection. A classic is refrigerants.

      70

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Doctors cover so many aspects of our lives that it’s a big enough task to be able to recognise health issues and deal with them by using references to decide on suitable treatment.
      Reference, upon diagnosis, to the collected wisdom and experience of previous experts is then relatively easy compared with the study which would be required to carry all that expertise ready to go.

      A sensible approach, but unfortunately there are “others” who might try to control that collected wisdom for their own personal gain.
      Think of the cash flow involved in the modern use of Vaxxines and their dodgy use to “prevent” all sorts of Mini minor things that may or may not be hanging around in the ‘vironment.

      Is there a Vaxxine that could fix greed?

      00

    • #
      David Maddison

      Not surprisingly the ultra-woke California Society of Anesthesiologists gives a choice between the environment and the patient and you must choose the environment being the wokesters they are.

      https://csahq.org/2022/05/16/rethinking-desflurane/

      Desflurane is clearly not a good option for the environment. Anesthesiologists continue to use this agent for its perceived ability to provide faster emergence and many may not be aware of its oversized contribution to the greenhouse effect and climate change. From 2001 to 2014, Desflurane emissions to the atmosphere rose from 150 to 960 tons annually as the global market for Desflurane increased 5.1% per year.5,6 Anesthesiologists should now reconsider whether the potential for faster operating room turnover and individual patient care outweighs the global health effects of this agent on the human population, especially when more sustainable anesthetics (Sevoflurane, Propofol, etc.) are readily available and provide equivalent clinical outcomes.

      My anaesthetist friend doesn’t agree there are suitable substitutes as claimed.

      The same organisation estimates that global emissions of Desflurane is around 960 tons.

      It must be a very magical substance if 960 tons of anything distributed over the whole planet can affect anything, let alone the weather. If it was so magical you could send 960 tonnes of it to Mars and warm it up a bit. It would only need about ten Starship deliveries.

      40

    • #
      David Maddison

      You can see what’s happening here.

      When the standard scary stories of catastrophic global warming don’t have the desired effect you up the ante and claim “forever chemical” status and then claim its going to kill all the penguins in Antarctica or whatever…

      40

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        And if that doesn’t work the ****** will claim that its use will wipe out penguin in the Arctic (and polar bears in Antarctica).

        10

      • #
        TdeF

        I live 400 metres from the beach and only a few metres above sea level. 38 years after we were told of rapid sea level rise, I am still waiting. Has the world given up on rapid sea level rise? Plus the end of penguins, caribou, polar bears, life on earth? Or have we been saved by payments to the UN? At least Malcolm Turnbull’s gift to his wife of $444million in cash has saved the Great Barrier Reef. And soon the electricity shortage will be over with his uncosted $42.5Billion Snowy II scheme, if it works. Maybe.

        10

      • #
        Sambar

        “When the standard scary stories of catastrophic global warming don’t have the desired effect you up the ante ”
        Like the current fires in Europe. Apparently half the “world” is burning. A quick google of areas burnt suggest that the current fires are about 254 thousand hectares over half a dozen countries, compared to the 2019-20 fires in Victoria with 1.5 million hectares burnt. Oh well .

        https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/nightmare-reality-as-half-the-world-burns/news-story/14fc6cde119c856852f31a99394bcc4a

        00

    • #
      David Maddison

      Even the Australian Government, fanatical “environmentalists” and fully mega woke, don’t agree that PFAS’s are a problem and cite the wokesters at ANU:

      https://www.cdc.gov.au/topics/environmental-health/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas

      Australian National University PFAS Health Study

      In 2016, the Australian National University (ANU) studied the potential health effects associated with PFAS exposure in:

      Katherine, Northern Territory
      Oakey, Queensland
      Williamtown, New South Wales.

      ANU released the findings of this study in 2021. They are consistent with previous studies, which confirm PFAS has not shown to cause disease in humans.

      You absolutely can’t get any more woke than the Australian Government and ANU and if there was even the slightest possibility of getting a scary story out of it they would, but they didn’t.

      00

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