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Press releases Friday 27 June 2008

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(1) Doctors must step up to the challenge of climate change
(2) Should doctors be increasing their carbon footprint by flying to conferences?

(1) Doctors must step up to the challenge of climate change
(Personal View: Why should doctors be interested in climate change?)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/336/7659/1506
(Personal View: Ten practical actions for doctors to combat climate change)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/336/7659/1507

Doctors must lead by example on climate change, according to experts in this week's BMJ.

Health professionals were powerful catalysts in changing society's view of smoking from a normal lifestyle choice to that of a harmful addiction, and they must do the same for climate change, writes Professor Mike Gill from the University of Surrey.

The NHS is the largest public sector contributor to climate change in the UK, responsible for generating over 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, about 3% of the UK total.

Despite the NHS recently committing to reducing carbon emissions by at least 60% by 2050, it is not enough, argues Gill, immediate and profound changes in behaviour are needed to avoid irreversible climate change.

He believes that a comparable health emergency occurred in the UK in the 1980s with the HIV epidemic. This, he points out, prompted significant action at all levels, including government awareness campaigns, national surveillance of the effects of behaviour, significant funding, and "the acceptance that this was a problem that demanded attention from health professionals".

A similar collective response on climate change is vital, says Gill, this must begin with health professionals showing patients and governments how serious they are about the challenge of climate change.

In a second personal view, Jenny Griffiths and colleagues from the Climate and Health Council and the Health and Sustainability Network, propose ten practical and inexpensive actions for doctors that could, they say, collectively reduce carbon emissions by up to 5 million tonnes a year - the equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of half a million people in the UK.

They suggest for example, advising patients on lower-carbon diets and walking and cycling instead of car travel; health professionals holding meetings by teleconference, videoconference or web-casting and attending fewer international conferences; doctors advocating locally, especially in primary care, to maximise home insulation and uptake of relevant grants; campaigning on an international level for stabilising the population by promoting literacy and female access to birth control; and putting climate change on the agenda of all meetings.

Doctors are still the professionals that the public trust the most and they must use this influence to change people's behaviour to benefit patients' health and reduce carbon emissions, they conclude.

Contact:
Jenny Griffiths, Climate and Health Council, London, UK
Email: griffhobbs@aol.com

(2) Should doctors be increasing their carbon footprint by flying to medical conferences?
(Head to Head: Are international medical conferences an outdated luxury the planet can't afford?)
Yes: www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/336/7659/1466
No: www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/336/7659/1467

Every year thousands of doctors and scientists fly to meetings all over the world, but with climate change accelerating, can this type of travel be justified, two doctors debate the issue in this week's BMJ.

Flying across continents in great numbers to exchange information will soon become as outdated and unsuitable to the modern world as the fax machine and the horse-drawn carriage, writes Professor Malcolm Green, from Imperial College, London.

Driving less and low energy light bulbs can contribute a little to reducing our carbon footprint, but if doctors stop going to international conferences they could make a real difference and be seen to be taking the lead, he argues.

In 2006, over 15 000 doctors and scientists from all over the world attended the American Thoracic Society meeting in the US. The flying delegates produced about 10 800 tonnes of carbon, representing 100 million person air miles. If you add in all the conferences all over the world this would equate to about 600 000 tonnes of carbon a year, says Green, and this is without including the energy costs of large hotels and enormous conference centres.

With the advent of teleconferencing, videoconferencing and other modern technologies there is no reason why doctors cannot attend virtual medical conferences, an already highly successful and common practice in organisations such as oil companies and financial institutions, he concludes.

But Professor James Owen Drife, from Leeds General Infirmary, argues that giving up medical conferences will have only a minuscule effect on global warming.

He points out that although people respect doctor's opinions on medical matters, this influence is unlikely to extend to persuading holidaymakers, who make up 60% of UK international travellers, to stop attending football matches or tropical weddings.

He argues that conferences are essential for inspiring and motivating and can even stimulate global action - would the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki have had as much effect on research ethics if it had been a group email, he asks.

In the 1980s the internet was heralded as the replacement to such meetings, in the 1990s it was electronic conferences, and last year, "Facebook for science" appeared, but nothing, he says, can or has replaced genuine communication.

Although Drife believes doctors should continue to attend medical conferences he accepts a compromise is essential. For instance, delegates should be urged to visit and learn from local populations and there should be a networking facility to prevent conferences on the same topic being offered back to back in different continents.

But, he concludes, "hiding behind our computer screens and pretending that this is helping the planet" is not a realistic option.

Contacts:
Malcolm Green, Professor emeritus respiratory medicine, Imperial College, London, UK
Email: malcolm@malcolmgreen.net
James Owen Drife, Professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds, UK
Email: j.o.drife@leeds.ac.uk

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