ASA committee chair discusses reducing anesthesia's carbon footprint in Inside Climate News

In the article, Seema Gandhi, MD, chair of ASA’s Committee on Environmental Health, discussed ASA’s efforts to reduce gas emissions from inhaled anesthetics. As of January 1, 2026, the European Union has prohibited the use of desflurane in all but medically necessary cases, the article reports. Dr. Gandhi shared that implementing regulations may be effective in the U.S. as well. “Top-down policy-driven initiatives can have a much larger impact in a much shorter duration of time,” she said. Jodi Sherman, MD, and Richard Dutton, MD, FASA, were also quoted.