The paracetamol challenge in intensive care: going green with paracetamol

Environmental impact of medicationParacetamol is one of the most widely prescribed medications in critically ill patients [1].Our intensive care unit (ICU) administered 50.133 g of paracetamol in 2023 (16.230 intravenous [IV] doses, 33.825 oral doses and 78 rectal doses).Two reports from the Netherlands showed that medication accounts for 40% of the environmental CO 2 footprint [2,3].Given this high percentage, interventions that decrease the administration of medications result in a direct decrease of the environmental footprint of healthcare.