Development and Validation of an Index Based on EAT-Lancet Recommendations: The Planetary Health Diet Index.

The EAT-Lancet Commission has proposed a planetary health diet. We propose the development of the Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI) based on this proposed reference diet. We used baseline dietary data obtained through a 114-item FFQ from 14,779 participants of the Longitudinal Study on Adult Health, a multicenter cohort study conducted in Brazil. The PHDI has 16 components and a score from 0 to 150 points. Validation and reliability analyses were performed, including principal component analyses, association with selected nutrients, differences in means between groups (for example, smokers vs. non-smokers), correlations between components and total energy intake, Cronbach's alpha, item-item correlations, and linear regression analysis between PHDI with carbon footprint and overall dietary quality. The mean PHDI was 60.4 (95% CI 60.2:60.5). The PHDI had six dimensions, was associated in an expected direction with the selected nutrients and was significantly (p < 0.001) lower in smokers (59.0) than in non-smokers (60.6). Cronbach's alpha value was 0.51. All correlations between components were low, as well as between components and PHDI with total energy intake. After adjustment for age and sex, the PHDI score remained associated (p < 0.001) with a higher overall dietary quality and lower carbon footprint. Thus, we confirmed the PHDI validity and reliability.

Posicionamiento y recomendaciones sobre cambio climático y salud respiratoria 2021 / Positioning and recommendations on climate change and respiratory health 2021

La Sociedad Madrileña de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica (Neumomadrid) está comprometida con la promoción de la salud respiratoria y con la prevención de las enfermedades que sean derivadas del cambio climático. Por ello elaboramos este documento para contribuir a concienciar a la sociedad general y al personal sanitario de la importancia de contribuir a luchar contra el cambio climático. Neumomadrid establece recomendaciones sobre un uso eficaz y sostenible de los inhaladores que permitan disminuir su huella de carbono, y sobre acciones que permitan a las sociedades científicas defender el medio ambiente. Finalmente, se recogen indicadores de medida que puedan servir para conocer el grado de compromiso con el cambio climático y llevar a cabo nuevas acciones de mejora

The Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery of Madrid (Neumomadrid) is committed to promoting respiratory health and preventing diseases caused by climate change. For this reason we have prepared this document to help raise the public's awareness and healthcare personnel of the importance of contributing to the fight against climate change. Neumomadrid establishes recommendations on an efficient and sustainable use of inhalers, which allow to reduce their carbon footprint, and on activities for scientific societies to protect the environment. Finally, key performance indicators are collected to be used for determining the degree of climate change commitment and taking new actions to improve the situation

BET 1: The clinical impact of policies aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of emergency departments.

A short-cut systematic review was carried out to establish if strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the ED could succeed while maintaining comparable care standards. Of 2914 papers found in the searches, 40 were selected for full-text review and none were eligible for inclusion. The main reason for exclusion was article type. Given the wide-ranging proposals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in healthcare, there is a dramatic paucity of evidence on the pragmatic effects on patient care.

Agricultural anaerobic digestion power plants in Ireland and Germany: policy and practice.

The process of anaerobic digestion (AD) is valued as a carbon-neutral energy source, while simultaneously treating organic waste, making it safer for disposal or use as a fertilizer on agricultural land. The AD process in many European nations, such as Germany, has grown from use of small, localized digesters to the operation of large-scale treatment facilities, which contribute significantly to national renewable energy quotas. However, these large AD plants are costly to run and demand intensive farming of energy crops for feedstock. Current policy in Germany has transitioned to support funding for smaller digesters, while also limiting the use of energy crops. AD within Ireland, as a new technology, is affected by ambiguous governmental policies concerning waste and energy. A clear governmental strategy supporting on-site AD processing of agricultural waste will significantly reduce Ireland's carbon footprint, improve the safety and bioavailability of agricultural waste, and provide an indigenous renewable energy source. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Aproximación a la integración de la huella de carbono y aspectos nutricionales para un consumo sostenible de alimentos / An approach to integrate carbon footprint and nutritional aspects for sustainable food consumption

Fundamentos: El consumo de alimentos influye sobre el calentamiento global. Pero no hay que olvidar que los alimentos son una fuente de nutrientes. Para apoyar un consumo sostenible, se ha desarrollado un indicador que integra la huella de carbono (HC) y el valor nutricional de los alimentos. Métodos: Con el fin de proporcionar una ponderación objetiva, se utilizó la técnica no paramétrica 'Análisis Envolvente de Datos' (DEA) para definir la eficiencia-eco-nutricional (ENE). La ENE, definida como 'rendimiento nutricional/impacto ambiental', varía entre 0 y 1, significando 1 que el menú es eficiente. Se presentan dos modelos DEA: el primero basado en el contenido en macronutrientes, mientras que el segundo considera la ingesta diaria recomendada. Los modelos se probaron en un caso de estudio de 256 menús diarios. Resultados: Ambos modelos mostraron valores de ENE entre 0.42 y 1, lo que supone un potencial de reducción de la HC de hasta un 58%. El modelo 2 es preferible porque se basa en recomendaciones nutricionales. Conclusiones: La ENE permite agregar la HC y los aspectos nutricionales en un valor único para apoyar la toma de decisiones. Se proponen mejoras como la introducción de micronutrientes y otros impactos ambientales (AU)

Background: Food consumption has a large influence on global warming. Although we must not forget that the main role of food is nutrient provision. This study develops an indicator to integrate the carbon footprint (CFP) and nutritional values of diets to facilitate sustainable food consumption. Methods: To provide a non-subjective weighting, the nonparametric technique 'Data Envelopment Analysis' (DEA) was used to define the eco-nutritional-efficiency (ENE). The ENE, defined as the ratio 'nutritional performance/environmental impact', ranges between 0 and 1, with 1 being efficient. Two DEA models are presented: model 1 focuses on the macronutrient content, whereas model 2 takes the recommended daily intake into account. They were tested through a case study consisting of 256 daily menus. Results: The case study showed that the vegetarian lunch was in all efficient menus. Western menus performed the worst due to a high CFP from meat. Both models led to ENEs between 0.42 and 1, therefore showing a potential CFP reduction of up to 58%. Model 2 is preferred because it focuses on nutritional recommendations. Conclusions: The ENE succeeds in aggregating the CFP and nutritional aspects to create a unique value that can support decision-making. Further investigation is needed to include micronutrients and other environmental impacts (AU)

Carbon and water footprint of pork supply chain in Catalonia: From feed to final products.

A systematic tool to assess the Carbon Footprint (CF) and Water Footprint (WF) of pork production companies was developed and applied to representative Catalan companies. To do so, a cradle-to-gate environmental assessment was carried out by means of the LCA methodology, taking into account all the stages involved in the pork chain, from feed production to the processing of final products, ready for distribution. In this approach, the environmental results are reported based on eight different functional units (FUs) according to the main pork products obtained. With the aim of ensuring the reliability of the results and facilitating the comparison with other available reports, the Product Category Rules (PCR) for Catalan pork sector were also defined as a basis for calculations. The characterization results show fodder production as the main contributor to the global environmental burdens, with contributions higher than 76% regardless the environmental indicator or the life cycle stage considered, which is in agreement with other published data. In contrast, the results in terms of CF and WF lay above the range of values reported elsewhere. However, major discrepancies are mainly due to the differences in the co-products allocation criteria. In this sense, economic/physical allocation and/or system expansion have been mostly considered in literature. In contrast, no allocation was considered appropriate in this study, according to the characteristics of the industries and products under assessment; thus, the major impacts fall on the main product, which derives on comparatively higher environmental burdens. Finally, due to the relevance of fodder production in the overall impact assessment results, strategies to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions as well as water use associated to this stage were proposed in the pork supply chain.

The effect of reduced street lighting on road casualties and crime in England and Wales: controlled interrupted time series analysis.

BACKGROUND: Many local authorities in England and Wales have reduced street lighting at night to save money and reduce carbon emissions. There is no evidence to date on whether these reductions impact on public health. We quantified the effect of 4 street lighting adaptation strategies (switch off, part-night lighting, dimming and white light) on casualties and crime in England and Wales. METHODS: Observational study based on analysis of geographically coded police data on road traffic collisions and crime in 62 local authorities. Conditional Poisson models were used to analyse longitudinal changes in the counts of night-time collisions occurring on affected roads during 2000-2013, and crime within census Middle Super Output Areas during 2010-2013. Effect estimates were adjusted for regional temporal trends in casualties and crime. RESULTS: There was no evidence that any street lighting adaptation strategy was associated with a change in collisions at night. There was significant statistical heterogeneity in the effects on crime estimated at police force level. Overall, there was no evidence for an association between the aggregate count of crime and switch off (RR 0.11; 95% CI 0.01 to 2.75) or part-night lighting (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.86 to 1.06). There was weak evidence for a reduction in the aggregate count of crime and dimming (RR 0.84; 95% CI 0.70 to 1.02) and white light (RR 0.89; 95% CI 0.77 to 1.03). CONCLUSIONS: This study found little evidence of harmful effects of switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, or changes to white light/LEDs on road collisions or crime in England and Wales.

Research developments in methods to reduce the carbon footprint of the food system: a review.

Global warming is a worldwide issue with its evident impact across a wide range of systems and sectors. It is caused by a number of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, in which food system has made up of a large part. Recently, reduction of GHG emissions has become an urgent issue to be resolved in the food system. Many governments and organizations are making great endeavors to alleviate the adverse effect of this phenomenon. In this review, methods to reduce the carbon footprint within the life cycle of a food system are presented from the technical, consumption behavior and environmental policies perspectives. The whole food system including raw material acquisition, processing, packaging, preservation, transportation, consumption, and disposal are covered. Improving management techniques, and adopting advanced technology and equipment are critical for every stage of a food system. Rational site selection is important to alleviate the influence of land use change. In addition, environmental choices of packaging stage, reduction in refrigeration dependence, and correct waste treatment are essential to reduce the total carbon footprint of the production. However, only technical methods cannot radically reverse the trend of climate change, as consumption behaviors present a great deal of influence over climate change. Appropriate purchase patterns and substitution within food product categories by low carbon products can reduce GHG emissions. Development of methods to calculate the carbon footprint of every kind of food and its processing technology enable people to make environmental choice. Policy can shape and cultivate the new code of consumption and influence the direction of emerging technology and science. From political perspectives, government intervention and carbon offset are common tools, especially for carbon tax and a real or implicit price of carbon. Finally, by mitigating the methodologies described above, the rate and magnitude of climate changes can be also reduced to some extent.

A case study of the carbon footprint of milk from high-performing confinement and grass-based dairy farms.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is the preferred methodology to assess carbon footprint per unit of milk. The objective of this case study was to apply an LCA method to compare carbon footprints of high-performance confinement and grass-based dairy farms. Physical performance data from research herds were used to quantify carbon footprints of a high-performance Irish grass-based dairy system and a top-performing United Kingdom (UK) confinement dairy system. For the US confinement dairy system, data from the top 5% of herds of a national database were used. Life-cycle assessment was applied using the same dairy farm greenhouse gas (GHG) model for all dairy systems. The model estimated all on- and off-farm GHG sources associated with dairy production until milk is sold from the farm in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq) and allocated emissions between milk and meat. The carbon footprint of milk was calculated by expressing GHG emissions attributed to milk per tonne of energy-corrected milk (ECM). The comparison showed that when GHG emissions were only attributed to milk, the carbon footprint of milk from the Irish grass-based system (837 kg of CO2-eq/t of ECM) was 5% lower than the UK confinement system (884 kg of CO2-eq/t of ECM) and 7% lower than the US confinement system (898 kg of CO2-eq/t of ECM). However, without grassland carbon sequestration, the grass-based and confinement dairy systems had similar carbon footprints per tonne of ECM. Emission algorithms and allocation of GHG emissions between milk and meat also affected the relative difference and order of dairy system carbon footprints. For instance, depending on the method chosen to allocate emissions between milk and meat, the relative difference between the carbon footprints of grass-based and confinement dairy systems varied by 3 to 22%. This indicates that further harmonization of several aspects of the LCA methodology is required to compare carbon footprints of contrasting dairy systems. In comparison to recent reports that assess the carbon footprint of milk from average Irish, UK, and US dairy systems, this case study indicates that top-performing herds of the respective nations have carbon footprints 27 to 32% lower than average dairy systems. Although differences between studies are partly explained by methodological inconsistency, the comparison suggests that potential exists to reduce the carbon footprint of milk in each of the nations by implementing practices that improve productivity.

The carbon footprint of pasture-based milk production: can white clover make a difference?

Carbon footprint (CF) calculated by life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare greenhouse gas emissions from pasture-based milk production relying mainly on (1) fertilizer N (FN), or (2) white clover (WC). Data were sourced from studies conducted at Solohead Research Farm in Ireland between 2001 and 2006. Ten FN pastures stocked between 2.0 and 2.5 livestock units (LU)/ha with fertilizer N input between 180 and 353 kg/ha were compared with 6 WC pastures stocked between 1.75 and 2.2 LU/ha with fertilizer N input between 80 and 99 kg/ha. The WC-based system had 11 to 23% lower CF compared with FN (average CF was 0.86 to 0.87 and 0.97 to 1.13 kg of CO(2)-eq/kg of energy-corrected milk, respectively, 91% economic allocation). Emissions of both N(2)O and CO(2) were lower in WC, whereas emissions of CH(4) (per kg of energy-corrected milk) were similar in both systems. Ratio sensitivity analysis indicated that the difference was not caused by error due to modeling assumptions. Replacing fertilizer N by biological nitrogen fixation could lower the CF of pasture-based milk production.