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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1530121
A Retrospective Study Exploring the Carbon Footprint of Bodies Donated to Science for Sustainable Medical Education and Research
Provisionally accepted
Carlo Barausse 1,2*
Subhi Tayeb 2
Lorenzo Bonifazi 2 Simone Lodi 1 Giulia Adalgisa Mariani 1 Ester Orsini 1
Sara Zanni 3
Alessandra Bonoli 4 Lucia Manzoli 1
Stefano Ratti 1- 1 Centre for Clinical and Surgical Experimental and Molecular Anatomy, and Cellular Signaling Laboratory, Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
- 2 Unit of Oral Surgery, Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
- 3 Department of Management, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- 4 Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
A comprehensive understanding of human anatomy is essential for medical education. Donatedhuman body dissection remains the gold standard for this purpose, but a shortage of locally donatedbodies like in Italy has led anatomical centres to explore external body donation programs, such asthose from the United States. This study assesses the carbon footprint (CO2e) associated with locallysourced versus internationally sourced donated bodies, with the latter being hypothetically estimated.A retrospective observational study using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was conductedto evaluate environmental impacts. The analysis included transportation, preservation methods (freshvs. embalmed), and additional factors like refrigeration and aeration. Locally donated bodies had anaverage transport distance of 201.19 ± 172.78 km, resulting in 14 ± 11.84 kgCO2e per body. Incontrast, international transport from the US produced approximately and hypothetically 450.375kgCO2e per body, representing a 3114.3% increase. The total carbon footprint for a locally donatedbody was 8948.99 kgCO2e annually. These findings suggest that local donation programs couldsignificantly reduce transportation emissions and are more eco-friendly. Promoting local donationprograms could not only enhance educational opportunities but also minimize the environmentalimpact of anatomical studies. Increasing local donor numbers would optimize the use of managementsystems, such as aeration and refrigeration, making the process more sustainable. In the limitations ofthis study further research is needed to refine these findings and explore strategies for reducing thecarbon footprint in medical training.
Keywords: human anatomy1, body donation2, carbon footprint3, medical education4, medical research5
Received: 18 Nov 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Barausse, Tayeb, Bonifazi, Lodi, Mariani, Orsini, Zanni, Bonoli, Manzoli and Ratti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Carlo Barausse, Centre for Clinical and Surgical Experimental and Molecular Anatomy, and Cellular Signaling Laboratory, Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.