Impact of Paper Consumption in Radiology Departments on Carbon Footprint and Climate Change: A Retrospective Analysis and Future Projections

Abstract

Introduction Climate change and global warming have major contributions from greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the introduction of digitalized systems, many health care systems still rely heavily on paper. The purpose of this study is to investigate paper usage in the radiology department of a single hospital institution over the last 3 years to forecast paper usage up to 2050. Materials and Methods This retrospective study was performed in the radiology department of our tertiary orthopaedic hospital. The study included forms used for diagnostic and interventional procedures in various departmental modalities. Diagnostic procedures require one to three forms and interventional procedures require three forms each. Based on the established ratio that 1.2 trees are cut for every 10,000 sheets of papers used, the study calculated the number of trees cut annually over the past 3 years and projected paper usage and tree loss until 2050. Results Paper usage was distributed between diagnostic and interventional procedures, with 67% used in diagnostics and 33% in interventions. The corresponding number of trees cut during this period amounted to 53.729 trees, with 47.4 trees for diagnostic procedures and 6.4 trees for interventional procedures. A total of 57.8 trees for diagnostic procedures and 11.7 trees for interventional procedures were forecasted to be cut annually from 2024 to 2050, cumulatively being 1,227 trees by the year 2050. Conclusion Our individual department had a significant contribution from paper usage in the carbon footprint of the department. Adoption of digitalized appointment, prescribing, and patient records is important in reducing this and achieving the NHS net zero targets.