All for a hoax. Environmentalists love when people suffer

New FDA inhaler ban worries some Treasure Coast patients

By BY Kim Kreidler Correspondent
Monday, December 29, 2008

To save the earth, the U.S. government might be leaving some people short of breath.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency have banned production, as of Dec. 31, of all inhalers using chlorofluorocarbons to propel medication into people's lungs. CFCs deplete the ozone layer, which protects us from damaging ultraviolet light.
But 40 million Americans rely on inhalers, and not all of them are convinced the new inhalers — which rely on environmentally friendly aerosol hydrofluoroalkane, or HFA — are as medically effective. The new inhalers also cost about $50, more than twice the price of the ozone-depleting versions.
"It works to a certain extent, but not as well," said 19-year-old Delaney Gatz, a Palm City resident diagnosed with asthma at age 6. "I feel like it's a smaller dosage and that the inhaler size itself is not as big."
Dr. Michael Light, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach, has heard similar complaints from his patients, many of whom are from the Treasure Coast. Doctors, including Light, still are researching the effectiveness of the environmentally friendly inhalers.
"If the amount of drug that is being delivered to the lung is not adequate, then clearly the solution is not to switch over from CFC to HFA," Light said. "I think that you have to listen to people when this happens."
That is exactly the battle cry of the National Campaign to Save CFC Inhalers.
With the total ban on CFC inhalers, U.S. lawmakers overreacted to problem of ozone depletion, organization President Art Abramson said. The CFCs eliminated by the inhaler ban will create a small improvement in the ozone layer, but a large problem in the lives of people who need the medications.
So far, the National Campaign to Save CFC Inhalers has collected more than 3,800 signatures. Abramson said that number might triple by the end of the year as pharmacies run out.
"I am a liberal, tree-hugging hippie, card-carrying member of Green Peace and Sierra Club. I care about the Earth. I don't want to see us destroy it," said Christine McKean of Vero Beach, 28, who has cystic fibrosis, another common ailment that requires the use of inhalers. "If I thought that the CFCs in inhalers were a major factor in the destruction of the ozone layer, I might be more against them."
Kim Kreidler is a Florida Atlantic University student working as a correspondent for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers as part of a senior-level journalism course.