You've probably heard about the relationship between exposure to air toxics, the onset of asthma, and the consequential use of emergency health care services. What you might not have considered is the impact that increased use of emergency health care services has on the environment, including medical waste proliferation and climate change.

According to the DOE, "Hospitals use 836 trillion BTUs of energy annually and have more than 2.5 times the energy intensity and carbon dioxide emissions of commercial office buildings, producing more than 30 pounds of CO2 emissions per square foot."  Unfortunately, more people are visiting emergency rooms instead of the doctor's office. The CDC reported that "Overall, there were about 119 million visits in the emergency rooms in 2006 up from 90 million in 1996, meaning a 32 percent increase.  A reason for this increase is the fact that the population in aging and most of the elderly use emergency rooms as their first stop for health care, instead if making an appointment at a doctor’s office."  It also appears that the uninsured aren't really to blame for this trend.  “The uninsured have long been more frequent users of (emergency rooms). That's not new. What's new is the rise ... in frequency in visits, and that's occurring in the insured,” said Dr. Stephen Pitts, author of the report and a CDC fellow who teaches emergency medicine at EmoryUniversity’s School of Medicine. 

The take home lesson is that health care reform isn't all about unfairly rewarding the workless and citizenless. Its about realigning how we educate the sick before they become sick.  If we don't co-opt prevention as a mantra for change then we'll not only have sick people but a very, very sick planet.