Royal Inland Hospital operating room gas collection project has big environmental impact
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KAMLOOPS — Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) in Kamloops doesn’t have 280 vehicles with their engines running inside its operating rooms, but it has reduced a similar amount on its carbon footprint.
In a news release, Interior Health says RIH completed a three-year project that collected waste anesthetic gases (WAGs) in all 11 of its operating rooms. According to the health authority, recovering WAGs from the operating rooms is the equivalent of taking 221 to 280 passenger vehicles off the road a year.
IH states only five per cent of anesthetic gas used for surgery is metabolized by the body, while the remaining 95 per cent is typically collected and vented out of the operating room and building, contributing to climate change.
Now, IH says up to 100 per cent of the anesthetic gas that’s exhaled by a patient is collected in canisters in the operating room. Once the canisters are full, they’re sent to an Ontario technology company’s facility where the gases are liquefied and turned into generic anesthetic gas.
