A letter published in ES&T Letters calls for environmental sustainability assessment tools to start acknowledging chemical pollution. Many tools, including the tool under development by the British Standards Institute (PAS 2090), largely focus on carbon emissions and overlook pollution. The publication was led by Kelly Thornber (CEO Pharma Pollution Hub), and co-authored by OHBP co-founder Sharon Pfleger and leading experts in chemicals pollution, pharmaceutical and environmental sustainability, and environmentally informed healthcare.
Summary:
Across their life cycle, pharmaceutical supply, use and waste management processes generate considerable greenhouse gas (GHG) and chemical pollution emissions. Yet, a new pharmaceutical environmental sustainability assessment (ESA) standard being developed will be focused almost entirely on GHG emissions, largely ignoring chemical pollution. This means that organizations across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors using this standard for future pharmaceutical environmental sustainability decision-making and reporting may not account, or be held accountable, for their chemical pollution footprint.
Here, we call for urgent action in the development and implementation of more progressive and inclusive pharmaceutical ESA tools.
The open-access article can be found at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.5c00914