Asthma is a chronic lung disease with symptoms including wheezing, coughing, difficulty breathing and/or a tight feeling in the chest, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Inhalers treat the symptoms of asthma and may be labeled "green" if the ingredients are environmentally friendly.
What is a Green Inhaler?
Many asthma drugs are packaged in an inhaler and are aerosolized for delivery to the lungs. The medication itself needs to be mixed with a propellant, a material that causes the medication to be expelled from the inhaler in a fine mist. An inhaler is a "green" inhaler if the propellant does not have harmful effects on the environment.
CFCs
The chemical propellants that were previously used in inhalers were chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. CFCs have a harmful effect on the environment because they degrade the ozone layer. Thus, including CFCs in an inhaler would not allow it to be labeled "green."
HFA
The FDA describes how CFCs were replaced with another propellant called hydrofluoroalkane (HFA). This ingredient also enables the medication to be delivered in a fine mist but does not have environmentally harmful effects.
History
After an international agreement, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began the phasing out of CFC as an ingredient in inhalers and other substances that needed to be aerosolized. Albuterol CFC inhalers were not to be sold in the United States after Dec. 31, 2008. HFA was determined by the FDA to be a safe and reasonable substitute. Though HFA may cause the inhaler spray to feel and taste slightly different, the FDA maintains that the same amount of medication is being delivered to the lungs as delivered by CFC inhalers.
Example
The most common type of medication used for the quick relief of asthma symptoms is a bronchodilator, which open the airways of the lungs. Albuterol is a very common bronchodilator; an example of an albuterol inhaler is one made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). GSK includes HFA in the ingredients of the albuterol inhaler that is currently sold, and clearly states in its prescribing information that the product contains no CFCs.
Significance
The CDC reports that, as of 2008, 7.3 percent of adults and 9.4 percent of children currently had asthma. Treatment of such a large percentage of the population requires a vast quantity of inhalers. Thus, using environmentally unfriendly inhalers has the potential to have wide-reaching effects. The use of green inhalers treats asthma without hurting the environment.
