Healing without harming: Radiographers' path to sustainable imaging

The Hippocratic principle “to help, or at least to do no harm” extends beyond patient care to reducing the carbon footprint of medical imaging, the experts suggested. As Ana Luísa Soares, radiation therapist and dosimetrist at the Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto, noted, ‘the healthcare sector is a major contributor to the climate crisis, representing 5% of the carbon footprint of global net emissions, equivalent to two gigatons of carbon dioxide. If it were a country, it would be the fifth largest in emitter on the planet.’ Citing the 2019 Health Care Climate Footprint Report from Health Care Without Harm, she pointed out that the European Union, China, and the United States collectively comprise 56% of the world’s total healthcare climate footprint.¹ 

Ms. Soares identified the major carbon footprint sources in radiology and radiation therapy departments: energy-intensive workstations, imaging devices, radiotherapy linacs, waste production, and patient transportation. She emphasized that ‘awareness and knowledge about sustainable practices in departments leads to changes in culture,’ adding that the work of radiographers makes them well-positioned to participate in hospital green teams tasked to identify wasteful practices and determine the feasibility of changing them.