Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Anthony Corea

ANESTHETIC GAS

Royal Inland Hospital collecting anesthetic gas to stem emissions

Sep 12, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS – Approximately 9,500 surgical procedures have been performed at Royal Inland Hospital in the last year. Surgeons use anesthetic gas to sedate patients every day. What most people don’t know is that gas, when released, can have a big effect on the ozone layer. Interior Health is changing that for the better of the environment.

“We now collect all of the anesthetic gases that we’re putting out into the environment,” anesthesia assistant John Patton told CFJC Today. “When a patient breathes out the gases, it goes through the machine and goes through a tubing that goes up into the roof. All of the agents get trapped inside canisters. Whether we are in the new building or the old building, we’re capturing all the anesthetic gases that we give to the patients, so they’re not going out into the environment and causing greenhouse gases and warming the planet.”

The project started back in 2020 when the Phil and Jennie Gaglardi Tower was being constructed. Prior to the project, the waste gases were vented outside the hospital, leaving a significant environmental footprint. Today, all 11 of Royal Inland’s operating rooms use anesthetic gas recovery technology.

“Unfortunately, the operating room is a huge polluter and we try and offset that as much as possible,” said Patton. “They say 50 per cent of [our] pollution is from our anesthetic gases, so to be able to capture those is a huge benefit, moving forward.”

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Royal Inland Hospital was one of the first hospitals to capture anesthetic gas. In 2023 alone, the facility has collected and avoided emission of 8.6 metric tons of eCO2

“Basically we look at it as though we planted about 700 trees per year by what we have collected just in the last year,” said Patton.