Carbon footprint generated by a radiation oncology department at a tertiary care hospital in India

Purpose: More than half of cancer patients will require radiation therapy (RT) during cancer treatment. The plethora of machines, gadgets, and devices in a radiation oncology department and the personnel can leave a significant carbon footprint. As a radiation Oncology community, we need to have recommendations and formulate our carbon footprint policy. This study, focuses on 1). Find out the quantum of carbon emissions. 2). Measures that we can take to minimise climate change , is a step towards increasing carbon footprint awareness in the radiation oncology community.

Methodology: Our center, is an advanced radiation oncology setup with a linear accelerator (Varian Truebeam version 2.7) and includes a brachytherapy unit (Varian Gamma Med Plus HDR), eclipse treatment planning system (TPS v.15.6) workstations and Citrix paperless solution. With regard to human resources, we have a total of 15 personnel in the department. In 2022, we treated nearly 292 patients, performed 21 brachytherapy sessions and delivered 5001 fractions of radiotherapy.
We meticulously tabulated all the existing equipment at our center, including major treatment machines (Linac, simulator and brachytherapy machines) and units such as TPS and other associated computers, printers, and other electronic gadgets. Similarly, all the general electrical equipment, including lights and air-conditioning, were noted along with their wattage. However, for carbon footprint calculation purpose, we relied on the more objective electrical meter reading of the department, as provided by the concerned section of the hospital .
We also recorded the to and fro travel frequency, mode of travel, and distance (calculated by using google map) of each department staff person and patient from their residence to the hospital. Subsequently, Online tools/links and existing literature were used to convert the acquired parameters into CO2 emissions [1,2].

Results: The total CO2 emission in the year (related to electrical equipment, servers, machines, SF6 gas and others being used) was 200.91 tCO2. In all, there are 15 departmental personnel working in our department. CO2 emission from their daily commute to the hospital annually was 5.06 tCO2 and by the patients and their attendants reporting to our center for daily radiotherapy treatment annually was 66.44 tCO2. In all, the total departmental cumulative CO2 emission of our department was 272.41 tCO2 per year

Conclusions: This article provides insight into the likely emission load from a radiation oncology setup. Once we are aware of the carbon footprint of our respective departments, there are several measures that we can take to reduce the same. The radiation oncology community must take cognizance of these findings and work further toward reducing carbon emissions in their departmental workflow.

References: 1. https://e-amrit.niti.gov.in/co2-calculator Last accessed Feb 28 2023
2. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/GHG_emissions_calculator_ver01.1_web.xlsx, last accessed on 14.08.23.