Concerns over health care’s carbon footprint typically revolve around issues like overly-air-conditioned hospitals and single-use medical supply waste. But researchers like Stanford University’s Jyothi Tirumalasetty think that asthma inhalers are also a good place to start when it comes to reducing emissions.
Metered-dose inhalers, the most common type used to treat asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), use a propellant gas to aerosolize medications, which patients then breathe in. Those propellant gasses are usually one of two different hydrofluorocarbons — which are many times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and thus disproportionately contribute to climate change.
Allergist Tirumalasetty, along with University of Michigan professor Shelie Miller and other co-authors, analyzed 2022 data from Medicare and Medicaid to figure out the average greenhouse gas emissions of these inhalers, and compare their costs to more environmentally friendly options.
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