Posted on 12/02/2008 6:28:14 AM PST by engrpat
WASHINGTON Last warning: Asthma inhalers go "green" on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch.
The medicine inside these rescue inhalers the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack isnt changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.
No more chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which damage Earths protective ozone layer. By years end, all albuterol inhalers must be powered by the more eco-friendly chemical HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane.
The down side: The new inhalers cost more, $30 to $60 compared with as little as $5 for the disappearing generic CFC inhalers.
And patients face a learning curve. HFA inhalers must be used differently than the old-fashioned kind. The medicine feels and tastes different, sometimes alarming new users despite doctors assurances that it works just as well.
"Theres still significant confusion," says Dr. Harvey Leo of the University of Michigans C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital. "Patients will tell you, 'I dont feel the puff anymore. "
Calls from parents unsure how to use the new inhalers, or even what they are, have increased in the past two months as more drugstores run out of CFC-powered inhalers and automatically switch people whod been expecting a mere refill, he adds.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
bfl
That’s the truth!
Great. Environazis screwing with a life-threatening condition to “save the climate”. People don’t count, but let something threaten one mouse, and that’s an all-out emergency.
bump
“What exactly was your experience?”
I have to use the inhaler two to three times rather than once in order to get the meds inhaled.
“Why “useless” with the spacer?”
There isn’t enough “ump” to get the inhaled medication into the inhaler in one dose. Then it isn’t aerosolized enough to inhale from the spacer.
I’ve been hearing about this problem for over a year now; I guess Ron White is correct...”You can’t fix Stupid”. CFC’s don’t do squat to the ozone layer—PROVEN SCIENTIFIC FACT—totally ignored by whacko environmentalists and their attendant {paid-for} politicians.
This isn’t about the ozone. It’s about money. The new inhalers are very pricey.
lease do look up the information about the asthma inhalers. My son has asthma.
Three common asthma inhalers containing the drugs salmeterol or formoterol may be causing four out of five U.S. asthma-related deaths per year and should be taken off the market, researchers from Cornell and Stanford universities have concluded after a search of medical literature. They base these conclusions on a statistical analysis of 19 published trials involving 33,826 patients. This so-called meta-analysis found that patients who inhaled the long-acting beta-agonists salmeterol (trade names Serevent and Advair, both made by GlaxoSmithKline) or formoterol (trade name Foradil
Unfortunately, the US made this decision to switch from the CFC’s as part of a world treaty/compact to cut CFC’s. So, even with all of the hollering the FDA would have to have the US ‘break treaty” to change the ruling.
FWIW
>Three common asthma inhalers containing the drugs salmeterol or formoterol may be causing four out of five U.S. asthma-related deaths per year and should be taken off the market, researchers from Cornell and Stanford universities have concluded after a search of medical literature.<
The deaths were caused because an inhaled steroid such as QVar must be used in tandem with the long-acting beta 2 agonists. Used correctly, the drugs save lives and reduce hospitalizations.
Can you get CFC from Canada still?
I am terrified of going to Mexico to get it.
Thanks for your reply.
Except for the fact that they don't work, everything about them is excellent.
Yes, they are.
The whole "green-carbon-climate" scam has jumped the shark scientifically, but it's still going strong in the political realm.
It's hard to figure.
Thank you for the link to the petition. i signed it.
Thanks!
Thank you.
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