Planetary Health is a relatively new scientific discipline and focuses on the relationship between our environment and the health of humans, plants and animals. “A healthy planet is essential for our health, just like healthy soil is essential for healthy plants. For example, we depend on the quality of air: if it contains a lot of waste products, it can make us sick - the Tata Steel incident is a prime example of this. Global warming is also bad for us: it not only increases heat stress, but our food has also become less nutritious and food security has decreased due to extreme weather.”
Protein intake
The doctor was not always aware of these facts. “When I was a student, I wasn’t concerned about the planet at all. I was a dedicated athlete, so I defended by my protein intake and believed that my protein had to come from fish or meat. But this belief gradually changed. I learned that you can also get protein from plant-based products, which was a real eye-opener for me.” Touw learned about the suffering of animals that is associated with eating meat, the environmental impact of meat and what good or bad food does to people. “During my medical studies, there was hardly any education about these things. Fortunately, that has now changed.” Planetary Health has become an integral part of medical training.
Disposable suture kits
Touw has learned that if you change the environment, you can change people. “We can do this by looking at social problems and by devoting greater attention to good education, healthy nutrition and poverty reduction, but also by looking at the health of the world. We can see that our healthcare system is breaking down, we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to provide care in the future, and this has subsequently forced us to look at things differently. You can start tackling a lot of problems by starting with sustainability.”
Healthcare can make a significant contribution to a healthier planet. “The healthcare sector currently uses up to 14 per cent of all of the raw materials that we use in the Netherlands. Once the healthcare sector becomes climate-neutral - which is something that we want to achieve by 2050 - our planet will become a little healthier, and as a result, people will also become healthier.” This requires major changes in energy consumption, for example, but the doctor knows that it can also be achieved on a small scale. “For instance, here in the ICU we use disposable suture kits and we used to wear disposable surgical gowns. This means that I can spend a whole day emailing the Purchasing Department, the Sterilisation Department and the manufacturers to ask about how we can change this situation.”
“In an ideal world, we’d progress from an egocentric to an ecocentric world, where we’d embrace the fact that our health depends on other species and understand that our own short-term gains shouldn’t always take priority when making choices. I hope that that’s where we’re headed.”
You have a part to play
Our society is facing major challenges. Radboud University wants to contribute to a healthy, free world with equal chances for everyone. With 'Je bent nodig' (You have a part to play), Radboud University aims to reach people who want to contribute to that goal.
Would you like to actively contribute or read more about sustainability in our education and research? Visit www.jebentnodig.nl for more information.
Would you like to contribute to a sustainable future for Dutch healthcare? You can donate to the research of Hugo Touw and his colleagues. Click here for more information.
Photo: Karsten Russ