How A Small Inhaler Change Helped To Improve The Ozone Layer
It has taken a bit of tim, but finally the millions of people using propelled inhalers have finally, and reluctantly made the switch from CFC- propelled inhalers to HFA-propelled inhalers.
The change in law legally occurred on the last day of December last year. Fundamentally, the intent for the change in the law was for environmental reasons. The older CFC inhalers use chlorofluorocarbon which has been shown to be one of the culprits in depleting the ozone in the atmosphere. What happens is that when these inhalers are used, when the person exhales, he exhales the CFC also. When the CFC hits the atmosphere, ultraviolet light breaks them down. This is what causes the ozone to be depleted.
This country is one of the last of the major industrialized nations to apply the change. Nations such as Canada, Europe, and Japan had all previously made the change.
Americans use medicinal drugs every year for symptoms as different as allergy free dogs, grass pollen allergy, and seasonal allergy relief. Even though the law changed last year to prevent the old inhalers from being produced and sold, no doubt there are still many people who have yet to replace their old inhalers with the newer ones.
According to the FDA, HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane, is much a much friendlier substance to the environment than CFC.
Since the changeover, users of the new HFA are primarily experiencing two differences. The biggest change is that the newer model inhalers tend to get clogged more frequently whereas with the older inhalers, this was not much of a problem. The other change, from a patient standpoint, is that the taste is a bit different.
It might seem that the tiny amount of propellant in each inhaler wouldn’t make a big difference. But there are million of these inhalers in use around the world each year. Because of this, the change is expected to significantly decrease the amount of harm done to the environment.
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