How Healthcare Systems Negatively Impact Environmental Health? The Need for Institutional Commitment to Reduce the Ecological Footprint of Medical Services

[...]healthcare systems worldwide are aimed at improving human health and prolonging life expectancy, but the pursuit of better health outcomes has environmental ramifications that are often underperceived [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. [...]it is not a surprise that healthcare systems account for an average of 8.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and about 6% in other Western countries [1]. According to the European RES-Hospitals project, which aims to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of hospitals among EU Member States, the CO2 production of hospital buildings across Europe represents 5% of total greenhouse emissions. [...]hospital waters, the main sources of micro-pollutants, are generally not separated from urban ones, and the purification plants used to treat them are unsuitable for removing the specific components present in the discharges of healthcare facilities.