Desflurane, isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane – clinically used inhalation anesthetic agents – are accumulating in the atmosphere of our planet, where they make a contribution to climate change, says a group of researchers led by Dr Martin Vollmer of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology in Dubendorf, Switzerland.
Dr Martin Vollmer and his colleagues detected a rapid accumulation of anesthetic gases isoflurane, desflurane, and sevoflurane, in the global atmosphere. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Like carbon dioxide, desflurane and other anesthetic gases allow the atmosphere to store more energy from the Sun. But unlike carbon dioxide, they are extra potent in their greenhouse-gas effects.
“One kilogram of desflurane, for instance, is equivalent to 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide in terms of the amount of greenhouse warming potential,” said Dr Vollmer, the first author on the paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
In their paper, Dr Vollmer and his colleagues report the 2014 atmospheric concentration of desflurane as 0.30 parts per trillion (ppt); isoflurane – 0.097 ppt; sevoflurane – 0.13 ppt; and halothane – 0.0092 ppt.
Carbon dioxide – which hit 400 ppt in 2014 – is a billion times more abundant than the most prevalent of these anesthetics.
The scientists said they did not include nitrous oxide in the study because it has many sources other than anesthetics.
“Halogenated inhalation anesthetic abundances are growing and should not be overlooked,” said Dr Jodi Sherman of Yale University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
“Health care in and of itself in the U.S. is one of the worst polluting industries. It generates 8 % of U.S. greenhouse gases according to one study. Add to this the fact that climate change has been recognized by the WHO as the number one health issue of the 21st century, and it behooves us to do a better job with emissions.”
“Anesthesia gases are something that the health care industry can easily do something about.”
Dropping desflurane, for instance, would make sense because it is the most potent greenhouse gas of the bunch. Not all anesthesiologists agree with that strategy, however.
“What the report fails to note is that a major factor determining the environmental effect is the manner in which the anesthetics are used. Many anesthetists deliver sevoflurane or isoflurane in 2-3 liters per minute flow but deliver desflurane in a lower flow – 0.5 to 1 liter per minute. Some believe that desflurane has clinical advantages that argue for its continued use,” said Dr Edmond Eger of the University of California at San Francisco.
“There’s nothing unique about desflurane that we can’t do with other drugs. Desflurane we could live without, and every little bit makes a difference,” Dr Sherman said.
_____
Martin K. Vollmer et al. 2015. Modern inhalation anesthetics: Potent greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 1606-1611; doi: 10.1002/2014GL062785
![Chemical structure of the cyclo[48]carbon [4]catenan. Image credit: Harry Anderson.](https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/08/image_14141-Cyclo-48-Carbon-104x75.jpg)
