Environmentally Friendly Healthcare

In 1922 Canadian Scientist, Sir Frederic Grant Banting, was the first person to isolate insulin. Insulin is used in the body to allow your cells to use the sugar you consume for energy. Insulin is made in the body in an organ called the Pancreas. Those people whose body has killed the pancreas have diabetes, and they must get artificial insulin from injections.

Banting found a way to isolate insulin. He could also produce it in small amounts for clinical trials. Up to 1980 all insulin was taken from pigs and cattle. This had an effect on the environment. We all know that cows and pigs produce a lot of methane that enters into our atmosphere and then contributes to global warming. To get the insulin from theses animals they would also have to provide everything for them including water, food, and shelter. Another way to produce insulin is to make human insulin. Scientists can transfer human DNA into things such as bacteria or yeast. This process uses a lot of chemicals, and is also harmful to the environment.

Since them science has come a long way, and is now even more environmentally friendly. In Calgary it was found that you could produce insulin from the safflower. Canadian scientist genetically engineered the human gene for insulin into the common safflower plant. This is the most cost effective way of producing insulin, and it is also good for the environment because as we know plants take CO2 in and put out oxygen. Only 25 square miles would be all we need to produce enough insulin for the diabetic population of the world. The production of insulin has just gotten a whole lot greener.