The awareness of operating theater professionals to the carbon footprint of their surgical activities: a binational survey on 301 healthcare workers

Global climate change is the main challenge to be faced in the next century and medical activities are a major contributor to CO₂ emissions. Diverse initiatives to improve the environmental impact of operating theaters have been described but are still quite seldomly implemented. The main goal of this study was to assess via binational multi-professional survey, the knowledge regarding impact of their practices and the willingness to change towards environmentally better ones on a representative sample of operating theaters.

An electronic survey was sent to health practitioners (anesthesiologists, surgeons, theater nurses) in South Africa and France. The survey consisted of four demographic questions, a 4-quiz questions regarding practices and their consequences regarding the environment. In addition, a ninth question focused on the willingness of the practitioners to change and the barriers to it.

Three hundred one professional health care workers answered the survey, 174 in France, 127 in South Africa. The average percentage of correct answers to the quiz was 41%. 32% of the responders found it indispensable to change practice and 66% important with some reservations regarding cost or utility. Only 2% did not feel engaged with change.

Despite a lack of knowledge regarding the impact of their daily practices and the improvement that may be done, the vast majority of health practitioners were willing to change daily practices towards more sustainable ones. Education is the key to transform readiness into initiative.