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.
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2 comments:
Thanks for your excellent article, Kim. And thanks to Dr. Light for joining the growing number of MDs willing to publicly contradict the conflicted and compromised medical associations and non-profits that are financed (one way or another) by the MDI (metered-dose-inhalers) drug companies. These expert propagandists have been telling us every day for the last two years that HFA MDIs are just as safe and effective for all patients as CFC MDIs, when all of the evidence shows exactly the opposite.
(We know that many patients do well with HFA MDIs, but we also know that many patients who were doing fine with CFC MDIs are suffering terribly, losing control of their disease, and in some cases, dying, because they cannot tolerate HFA MDIs, and THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANY OF THIS WHEN WE HAVE CFC MDIs WHICH CAN RELIEVE THEIR SUFFERING INSTANTLY. CFC MDIs must be permanently legalized for those who need them.)
I'd like to make one small clarification about the amount of improvement in the ozone layer that would result from the ban of all CFC MDIs. I've seen nothing that would indicate that there would be any improvement from this ban whatsoever. Atmospheric CFC levels have fallen considerably since 1994, and ozone layer concentrations have stabilized since 1997. And during this period of ozone layer recovery, total CFC emissions from all sources were much greater than peak CFC MDI emissions ever were, so I don't think that the ban of CFC MDIs will produce any benefit at all, and neither the FDA, the EPA, nor anyone else has produced any evidence to show otherwise.
We now have over 3,900 petitioners after a very late start, and we hope to have at least one percent of the nation's 40,000,000 asthma and pulmonary patients join us (not to mention their friends, families, and many other concerned voters) by Election Day on November 2, 2010. This deadly ban of CFC MDIs must be reversed as soon as possible.
Join our campaign to permanently legalize CFC MDIs at:
www.savecfcinhalers.org
Arthur Abramson
The National Campaign to Save CFC Asthma Inhalers
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice post!! Thanks for your excellent article, Kim.
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