Disposable endoscopic devices may be good for infection control, but they are not good for the environment according to a Dartmouth study that quantified the environmental impact of endoscopic waste.
When average waste estimates are extrapolated to annual U.S. endoscopy procedure volume, the waste “would fill 980 single-family houses,” according to Heiko Pohl, MD, the director of endoscopy at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, in Vermont, and an associate professor of