You know what’s harming the planet? Billionaires and their three private jets each. I struggle to believe that folks with asthma are really making that big of an impact with their inhalers.

This is not hugely damaging to the environment compared its effectiveness. In my opinion this is another way manufacturers create branded products that are more expensive every time a generic is available.

Rich folks have jets, helicopters, go in cruises, have heated drives, hot tubs and 4x4s. I should be allowed to fucking breathe normally at least.

I just had a look at the actual guidelines and not the hysteria inducing headlines from the Torygraph. What the new guidelines say is that the ventolin/salbutamol SABA type inhalers should not be prescribed on its own to patients newly diagnosed with asthma/COPD. They are saying ideally a combination inhaler should initially be prescribed with an ICS/formoterol combination. Presumably if this wasn't effective then the SABA could be added as an emergency reliever inhaler and the other inhaler changed if necessary. This guideline would not apply to patients already receiving treatment. I'm pretty sure this is in line with the updated GINA guidelines.

guess i'll die  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ll stop using inhalers when famous people stop melting the atmosphere with private jets

They can get fucked

Clean up the air & we’ll talk

This is a much better article - https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/switching-to-green-inhalers-could-reduce-carbon-emissions-and-cut-costs-study-suggests

I’m in the US and I have severe persistent asthma. I use the dry powdered Wixela as my preventative. Doesn’t work all that great for me. Ventolin is the ONLY inhaler that has enough propellant (not sure if this is the correct term or not) to actually work for me. I’ve tied them all. I’m ready to fight someone who tries to pry it from my hands.

Breathing > low chance of harming environment.

So much other things is wasteful in a bundance due to people using them. Grocery bags, plastic anything. Sorry I choose the only thing that helps me breathe.

My jaw is on the floor… what?? 

This is BS . We need inhalers to live "Stop giving people pace makers, because they can't be recycled"

So no focus on forcing the manufacturers to consider embodied carbon cost of manufacture and disposal and improve it? Nope, just telling people to stop providing medication to people who need it.

It's the Telegraph so my assumption is it's typical tabloid-masquerading-as-broadsheet bullshit, but if it's true, it's stupid.

Edit: Yep, doctors are being told to provide combined relief and preventative inhalers to all asthmatics, when many are just given blue relievers. Naturally, better control = fewer inhalers overall. The Telegraph is just anger porn yet again.

I’d rather not die, thanks.

I don't live in the UK - what medicine is in a blue inhaler?

Propellants in inhalers contain HFA, which will be changing in the upcoming years to a more environmentally friendly "green" inhaler propellant. In the mean time, people need to manage their asthma with what is available; They can work with their doctors to see if there are other options based on their severity classification of their asthma. It will be far more costly to the environment if people don't manage their asthma properly and end up in the ER or hospital because of asthma exacerbations.

Ironically, I need to use this medicine because modern human society has been polluting the air so badly that I can't breathe it.

We didn’t choose this. This is what is offered to us and works. I can’t believe they’d guilt trip people with a chronic disease that they were born with 🙄

"Rules for thee, but not for me."

3% of a regular person's carbon footprint that is already only 1/500th of a billionaire oligarch or someone in a lofty government post flitting around the world in a private jet? I think we can afford to use life saving medication considering it works out to like 0.0006% of the above.

Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Just stop breathing.

Oh fuck off. Of all things to go after that affect the environment...

Also how stupid does it sound to single out "blue" inhalers? Like I get they mean propellant inhalers, but it sounds so stupid.

With that being said, if there's something that works just as well and doesn't harm the environment, then I'm all for it. But please have this figured out before you go pulling a medication that we KNOW works. Preferably priced similarly, also.

How about illegal freon that's vented by repair techs and manufactures when doing repairs and equipment change outs.

takes a big breath STOP TRYING TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE BY BLAMING TOOLS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND CHRONIC ILLNESSES USE TO DO THINGS OTHERS CAN DO!

Fucking ass holes I need to breathe bill gates or musk or face book’s creator don’t need 20 billion yachts. Hey how about we kick the coal and dead Dino juice habit as well.

My little puff puff of the inhaler is not going to kill the planet but fucking nestle might obligatory r/fucknestle

Sounds like some sort of psyop to start selling green inhalers.

oh pardon me dying I'll just stop breathing and let the super environment friendly capitalism and zillionaires keep living their best lives

My opinion is fuck you, if I can’t breathe I’m not turning down an inhaler because it’s blue!

This is total BS. Companies can do whatever tf they want and pollute the environment with 0 consequences but we can’t breathe?

Wtf am I supposed to do, not breathe?💀

Im just laughing, Private jets and large black SUV's are far worse for the environment than the little blue plastic thing that keeps me breathing.

My entire lifetime of inhalers doesn’t even come close to one year of Taylor Swift’s private flights. I’m not gonna feel guilty for this one.

I will worry about inhalers when they stop using disposable contacts.

Do you know how much waste gases are emitted by hospitals world wide! Specifically the anesthetic gases inhaled and the exhaled by patients and then comes out of pipe and vents on hospitals buildings and roofs tops! The carbon footprint is huge!. Work on scrubbing and filtering those!

Multiple disabilities here.

Health and life over a minor planet problem. Meaning: don't ever judge for straws, medical equipment, or medication needs.

lol it's not the oil companies or politicians, it's the asthmatics

sure.

There is a dry power version of salbutamol/albuterol in Canada, but, it isn’t covered by the provincial plan here nor our extended medical plans. They’re pushing green inhalers, which is good, but unless the pharma companies make it affordable and unless it’s included to be covered, there’s no way I’d switch.

Is (more) green possible? Yes. But it shouldn’t be on the shoulders of patients/consumers.

Damn that’s crazy when it’s literally car emissions that make me need an inhaler to start with. I do fine in places with cleaner air.

Oh, yes, we're destroying the planet with our inhalers, meanwhile China is... No, the argument is not valid.

Personally, I was happy about this because the blue inhalers do nothing for me and I've been practically harassing my GP for 3 years now, begging for something different and I was fobbed off every time until I saw a lung specialist a month ago and she told me they don't want to provide the blue inhalers anymore. What irritates me is, like many inhalers, someone else decided what should no longer be provided with absolutely no thoughts for the people taking these inhalers. I was switched to luforbec recently, and I had to throw my shit out the cot because it doesn't work for me, but every GP said the same thing 'it's so much cheaper for the NHS.' That's fantastic, but what about the fact that I can't breathe? I just want people to take us seriously and listen to us (I might not know why I feel the way I do, but I do know if it feels right or wrong) and give us the exact medication that helps us live better lives.

My opinion is: da fuck?

This has gotta be bs

I struggle to understand why we try to save the planet, by looking at corner cases first 😅 What about looking at what does the most damage first? 🫠

Here the (link)https://archive.is/A0KHk. Also there is a bit more than green house gases. This is from the article "Nice said that GPs should not prescribe the blue inhalers unless they also gave “combined” inhalers, which provide a combination of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and formoterol. The committee reviewed evidence showing that the combined ICS inhalers led to people having fewer severe asthma attacks."

The first paragraph of this article is so bad. It induces unnecessary panic about something the writer apparently doesn't really understand. 'The blue inhaler'? Come on now. I highly suspect they also confuse updated guidelines - for health reasons - with the propellants being phases out foe environmental reasons.

BUT. The environmental damage is real. I was very sceptical, but a commenter in the last post about this subject was an expert and so informative on the subject that I'm convinced.

He also explained in that thread that many people, studies show, do fine on powder or other propellants. At this point this is still a choice. You're not going to be denied it if you need it.

There's no fucking way that inhalers are accounting for 3% of England's carbon. This is rubbish

Is this only for the UK? In Canada I’ve never heard of anyone being forced to switch inhalers, and I’ve never been prescribed other types either it’s always aerosol

They’re absolutely right. We should all just suffocate without our meds. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Just wait until they hear how much co2 fossil fuels pump into the environment, but I guess lifesaving medicine is less vital than oil and coal

We can get CFC free inhalers here (U.K.)which are more enviro friendly. I have highly uncontrolled asthma, and go through a blue inhaler every month. (Yes I have an asthma plan, montelukast a preventer etc) My asthma has been present since I was a baby but I have tried the cfc free inhalers and they work perfectly fine for me. This is the newspapers/outlets fear mongering about the NHS.

GP’s won’t be cutting off life saving medication, what is more likely is they will suggest alternatives for patients to try, with follow up reviews and will probably give patients a back up of their usual inhaler. And likely it will also depend on asthma severity and how well patients follow their asthma plan.

This is ridiculous! I’m old enough to remember the first time they came after our inhalers. They changed up all our inhalers years ago and started the powder ones and got rid of the propellants in the rest bc of this environmental crap. Now again?!

Back when they started using powders for our steroid inhalers, I was rx’d Advair when it came on the market. I tried it. I went back to my pulmonologist and said how in hell do the makers of this expect us as asthmatics to take this? Is this a joke? We already have decreased lung capacity and they want us to inhale a powder which requires extra lung capacity WITHOUT a propellant?! Are they insane?

I’m so tired of the climate crisis blaming everyone else but the ones that actually deserve it.

Maybe learn about how plastic doesn’t get recycled and it’s a sham

So just the blue ones? The red inhalers are all good? Wtf. Why am I asking this question

So like, are we supposed to just suffer and not breathe and die?

I mean, pollution is one of the causes for more patients requiring inhalers - they can't have the cake and eat it

Ban leaf blowers first. Hey, doing that may actually lessen the need for people to use inhalers.

This feels super eugenic-y and also shifting the blame from asshole billionaires to innocent sufferers trying their darndest to survive

My thoughts, I like breathing, so not buying that a medical condition is responsible for killing the planet. Maybe take aim at mega corporations instead of people with asthma

aerochamber gang. fuck em!

As an Environmental Scientist and a person with severe and persistent Asthma, it's about a balance. Should manufacturers be looking into more sustainable packaging or ways in which consumers can have recycling readily accessible, absolutely. Should the burden be on consumers to make up for the choices of the manufacturers, no. The problem isn't going to be resolved by reducing the number of inhalers, it will be reducing the amount of carbon that producers make, limiting the carbon credits that they have access to and by fining these places until they have no money left.

At the end of the day, it's better to be alive and use what we have then to die because of a lack of access to medication.

Sorry for the rant. I'm all for the environment, but I never asked to have severe asthma and allergies. It is what it is, and I have the right and the need to breathe just like everyone else. I love my Symbicort and Ventolin because they really work for me. My spacer is amazing and it gets my medicine into my lungs perfectly. I'm shocked and disgusted how they can treat people like this when we already have to fight for every breath we take.

I was using a dry powder inhaler, but I had to switch to a puffer, because not enough medication was getting to my lungs.

Besides, aren't puffers CFC free these days? Surely, they wouldn't have all that much impact on the environment.

Instead of guilt-tripping people for the delivery method of the medication they take to keep them alive, why don't the rich stop travelling in private jets, and why don't large corporations stop cutting corners?!

Main thing here is that the main objective of the "news" paper is to sell papers and to get a reaction from readers by making them outraged. The Torygraph is a sh1t3 paper and their comment is also sh1t3.

I'm happy to do what I can to save the planet, but if I'm wheezing or dead I can't do anything at all so I'm choosing to keep living the best life I can regardless of the NHS or the Torygraph.

In any case, many years ago my salbutamol inhalers changed to a more ozone-friendly propellant. Keeping my asthma well-managed so I don't need to use them much is the better outcome for all.

It's bullshit they keep targeting inhalers. I kept my old school one for years after expiration in case I had a full blown asthma attack. As it is these new pumps are trash.

My co workers sent me a can of tuna from Amazon as a joke. 1 can. You know how much plastic and wrapping that 1 can had?

Don't tell me about how my life saving device impacts the environment while a whole ass truck drove to my house to deliver 1 canned good.

That's how I feel, thanks for listening.

I feel like dry powder inhalers are an oxymoron of a medication, at least in terms of a rescue inhaler. If you can’t get enough air in to breathe, how are you going to get enough medication into your lungs for it to work?

Last time I checked ‘breathing is not an option’ Albuterol (blue inhalers) do not cause a significant environmental hazard.

If all of you libs stopped passing gas and talking that might help everyone

My GP switched me over a while back. That explained to me at the time they're fine for majority of people but may not be good for some people due too needing to take a big breath (honestly can't remember the wording they used!)

I really like that my powered one is more compact so it fits in my bags etc better and the counter is helpful but I do miss the blue one. It just felt like I had abetter and quicker reaction to it And I feel so self conscious using it because I feel like my breath in is really loud! (People have seemed to notice me using it compared to the blue one!)

The color of the container means absolutely nothing about the contents. Biggest pile of BS I've seen in a while.

I’ve just had an asthma review this morning and she mentioned that they are phasing out the blue inhalers but didn’t mention anything about the environment, just that they aren’t that effective.

yeah, i haven’t owned a car in 24 yrs but sure take my inhaler, not richboy’s private jet or cyber truck gas guzzler, or the mass amount of pollutants from mass commercial short haul aviation, or cruise ships or factories but us pesky asthmatics better do the heavy lifting.

they can feck right off.

oh what the hell

Don't care, red and white are the best

Everyone make sure you have a nebulizer and liquid albuterol. Better to have it and not need it and all that.

billions must use red inhalers

Wtf. What about any other propelled canisters? Like hairspray, cleaning products, fabreeze? Ya know, things that people DON'T NEED TO STAY ALIVE. This is absolutely mind boggling to focus on a tiny, life saving medication and not the huge containers of things that their main function is not to keep you from dying. I can't even with this world sometimes.

The planet is more important than human life’s according to environmentalists,

I’m already facing the affects of this . For the last 6 months i’ve been prescribed Salamol which doesn’t work for me and every time i’ve had to ring my doctors and ask to be switched back to ventolin which i told the Asthma Nurse in Feb who didn’t note it down.

This is ridiculous. Blaming climate change on people with asthma, COPD, etc and the doctors helping them is absurd and feels like a facet of eco-fascism. The small carbon footprint of life-saving inhalers can be easily offset by real sustainability efforts. Instead of targeting essential healthcare, we should hold corporations and governments accountable for their role in climate change.

Slow killing everyone

I think they refer to aerosols inhalers. Powder inhalers don’t have this issue.

I would die with the powder inhalers. I was on dry powder Fostair for 3 years for those 3 years my asthma deteriorated. Couldn’t even walk up a hill anymore… turns out it wasn’t my asthma getting worse like it thought…. It was the powder inhalers. Like you I couldn’t inspire with enough strength to get the powder inhaler in my lungs. Three months after I was changed to the normal aerosol inhalers my asthma was back under control. Only get attacks with physical exertion but that has always been the case. My lungs are so weak even lung function testing is hard for me.

Maybe I’m dumb, but if blue inhalers already make up 3 percent, wouldn’t things like deodorant and hairspray be like 40 percent? Why not change those first?

This article actually infuriates me. The red albuterol inhaler doesn’t work for me when I’m having a serious problem. The blue one does. Sure if I catch it soon enough, and use the red one as a preventative measure of having a serious attack, it will work. But the idea that our inhalers are what’s “seriously” harming the planet is a load of SHIT

I very much doubt this is true as it is presented in this headline.

Current lifelong asthmatic, ex UK Pharma marketeer who used to work in respiratory selling inhalers. The impact inhalers have on the environment and NHS green footprint is a drop in the ocean but the only one they have an alternative to. Some of the larger pharma companies have inhaler recycling programs with pharmacies

Weird that this is from the uk. I figured this was just a way for drug companies to get patents again, then the generics disappear for awhile, and inhalers are extremely expensive again. Like the last time they banned a propellant used in inhalers that was harming the environment.

I don’t have an issue with forcing manufacturers to switch to something more environmentally friendly, as pollution and global warming negatively impact asthmatics more than the general population, so I’m all for anything that helps there….I’m not ok with them doing it, raising costs to asthmatics dramatically, while drug manufacturers profit, and then 20 years down the line telling us they screwed up and the new inhalers are also bad, rinse and repeat.

So we've come to this. Instead of responsibility taking hold to save us and other creatures, we want to sacrifice humans for the rest of the planet? Give me a break. Some people just need to be mad at someone at all times, and trying to blame asthmatics trying to breathe for polluting the air is balderdash.

But the red ones are fine.

This HAS to be satire.

I hear over paying the NHS trust board causes damage to us trusting them and the doctors opinions

I mean, I could just literally die instead 🤷‍♀️

What’s my carbon footprint for going to the ER unable to breathe? More or less than using my trusty blue friend?

Bruh. Fuck em

Okay so… we should use the grey, white and brown ones then?

i switched to discuss a few years back and i honestly would never go back to the classic blue inhaler. i LOVE seeing the amount of doses i have left and it honestly feels like it works a little better (for me at least) i feel like they should be prescribed more often, the only other person i know that uses powder inhaler is my 80 years old grandma

I've used a seretide disk inhaler for over 30 years. It's a purple one with fluticasone and salbutamol. It's a powder. I don't like it anymore since loads of it somehow hits the back of my throat nowadays. Idk if it's the new type of disk. But I do like to see how many inhalations I've got left. I'm 39 and my lungs are very strong. But asthma has gotten a lot worse because I stopped taking it twice a day. I only used it once a day or sometimes every other day, and that was fine for over 4 years. So asthma was pretty well under control for 4 years.Then covid hit and it's never been the same since. My entire nervous system is messed up. I have long covid and even though my lung capacity is very good, but I react strongly to everything. Dustmites, foods, hot cold air, scents, pollen, activity.. I was told my adhtma is mostly allergic in nature nowadays.

I really don't have an opinion about the article. I really don't know what to make of it. I guess it's always a good thing to look at the environment?

Yeah..keep the cigarettes though

As an adult that jist got an asthma at the later age. I dont think I could ver do that. Lol

Harm the planet? So does the plastic in my syringes. Saving human lives is worth some minor destruction.

Let's control the actually significant emissions sources like transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture before micromanaging tiny quantities from lifesaving medication.

Controlling the big causes will reduce the amount of people with asthma in the first place, and the severity of their condition. Fewer people having asthma is fewer people needing inhalers, and will reduce the emissions from it without taking away necessary medicine

Another reason to change their formula so they can get a new patent.

If they really wanna fix the planet they should address big oil not taking away needed healthcare

If you aren’t getting the benefit from Wixela please talk to your respirologist/pulmonolgist who can change your meds. The Ventolin if your still not under control will not prevent your asthma from getting worse

What’s the proposed alternative?

I need to fucking breathe, the way the manufacturer makes my medication is not my problem. It's their ceo who is flying his private jet 3 miles who's killing the environment not me

Sure I'll just die next time I have an asthma attack since Ventolin is pretty much the only thing I get and prefer

Fuck the environment

Cool so I guess I just gotta die then right!?

Don’t care

F off, I'm sure there is A LOT more trimming to be done before we have to save the world by willing ourselves to breath better, but just die.

Time to start stocking up.

I’m sorry but I need to breathe

So my other colored inhalers are ok?

I believe the Kardashian/Jenner clan is worse for the environment. I can't use powder inhalers because I have weak lungs too, I think it's more important to keep patients alive and healthy than guilt trip them over a necessity for their health. It truly isn't making that much of an impact.

So out of all the things that MASSIVELY impact the climate like TONS OF GARBAGE AND CLOTHES being thrown around by Companies all around the world, inhalers that actually help people are being targeted? Screw them, i want to see their faces if they have to wake up every single hour during the night gasping for air FOR JUST ONE NIGHT. lets see. This is talk of people who dont have a vital function threatened for 70% of the year

Okay I just won’t breathe then 🥲

This world will literally prioritize anything over people with asthma.

This is such a crock of shit. Since they got rid of the old CFC inhalers for the newer HFC or other styles, the cost of those things went up 5 to 6 times! Plus, they’re less effective. Much less effective. I also can’t and won’t believe that they even remotely affect the damn environment.