**6. Health hazards of carbon emissions**

Exposure and inhalation of CO/CO2 lead to a variety of health issues which include difficulty in breathing, increased heart rate, profound sweating, tiredness, restlessness, dizziness, headaches, a tingling sensation, hypertension, coma, asphyxia, and convulsions. Continuous exposure to CO in the closed area may even lead to death.

Higher average temperatures and changes in weather disturb rain and snow patterns which leads to the migration of invasive species to new areas. Pathogens and even their hosts which were not able to survive low temperatures will spread to new areas as the average temperature rise due to global warming. Insect pest infestations of plants and crops will increase as pests will be able to take advantage of weakened plants due to atmospheric and weather conditions (**Table 9**).

Marine animals are severely affected by the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is because the ocean absorbs CO2 in the atmosphere and becomes more acidic. Though the increase of CO2 in the ocean may have little impact on big marine animals, marine phytoplankton multiplies rapidly with more CO2, and more phytoplankton support larger aquatic animal populations.

The major impact of a more acidic ocean is on animals like corals, sea urchins, and mollusks that produce calcium carbonate shells. Acidification not only causes difficulty for these animals to produce shells but cause the shells to actually dissolve due to the change in the chemical balance of ocean water. Decreased number of shelled animals can impact the ocean ecosystem and trigger a chain reaction in wide range of organisms that depend on these animals for their food (**Table 10**).


#### **Table 9.**

*Potential health problems with increased levels of CO2 in the air [22].*


#### **Table 10.**

*Increase in waste generation by COVID-19 in some cities.*

According to Practice Green-health, an organization working for more sustainable hospitals, about 25% of the waste generated by hospitals is plastic. The National Health Service (NHS), UK creates.

133,000 tons of plastic annually with only 5% of it being recyclable [23] and hospitals in the USA produce more than 5 million tons of waste each year, 1.25 million tons of which is plastic. About 16 billion injections are utilized worldwide every year, but not all of them are properly disposed of afterward generating a huge amount of nonbiodegradable waste [24].

HCW that contains chemicals like pharmaceuticals, laboratory and diagnostic reagents, disinfectants, cleaners, solvents, and waste containing metals and heavy metals is considered chemical healthcare waste. Chemical waste accounts for about 3% of waste originating from health care activities [25].

The literature reveals even in small and economically not so sound countries like Pakistan hospitals produce 2.0 kg of waste, per bed per day, of which at least 0.5 kg can be categorized as hazardous HCW and the average daily HCWG from both public & private sector hospitals is approx 0.8 million tons [26].
