Releases of anesthetic gases are beginning to accumulate in the earth’s atmosphere in increasing amounts, contributing on a small scale to climate change. According to a new studypublished online in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, the most common gases in anesthesia — desflurane, isoflurane, and sevoflurane — are being found more frequently across the globe, reaching as far as Antarctica. Like carbon dioxide, anesthesia gases contribute to more energy from the sun being stored in our atmosphere. As a result, anesthesia gases behave like greenhouse gases, trapping in heat and contributing overall to global warming. According to Martin Vollmer of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology in Dubendorf, Switzerland, the amount of anesthetic gases in the atmosphere is significantly less than carbon dioxide, but still making an impact.

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