Environmentally Friendly Inhalers

...now asthma sufferers can breathe a little easier knowing their medication can reach their air passages without damaging the environment.

With the number of Canadians who suffer from asthma topping 3 million, chances are you have seen someone using a metered dose inhaler (MDI or 'puffer'). Asthma is one of the most common, chronic conditions in this country. World wide, there are close to 70 million sufferers and over 80% of these individuals rely on MDIs for their therapy.

Until recently, MDIs, while not harmful to patients, were hazardous to the earth's already damaged ozone layer. Conventional MDIs represented the last commercial source of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) escaping into the atmosphere. CFCs are known to contribute to the hole in the ozone layer - every molecule of chlorofluorocarbons, damages about 100,000 molecules of the ozone layer.

3M Pharmaceuticals, in seeking ways to protect the environment while still delivering the much-needed medication to asthma sufferers, designed and developed the world's first CFC-free inhaler, Airomir™. The propellant in the Airomir™ inhaler is HFA-134a (hydrofluoroalkanes). It contains no chlorine and is safe for the earth's ozone layer. 3M pioneered metered dose inhaler technology, introducing the first MDI in 1956 and the first breath-actuated MDI in 1970. Airomir™, an inhaler now approved in more than 50 countries, delivers the drug most widely used for the treatment of asthma, salbutamol sulphate. 3M then introduced QVAR™ (beclomethasone dipropionate extrafine aerosol), becoming one of the first pharmaceutical companies to offer an HFA formulation of the inhaled corticosteroid most frequently used for the prevention of asthma.

Airomir's unique benefits go beyond being environmentally friendly. In Canada, where temperatures can dip dramatically in winter, the old inhalers were a problem. Often, significantly less medication would be delivered if the individual were using the inhaler in cold weather. The Airomir inhaler delivers the same amount of medication though, even when the temperature drops to -20°Celsius. Yet another advantage is that there is no "tail-off" with the new inhaler. With the old CFC inhalers, dosage became unpredictable toward the end use of each unit. Airomir delivers the targeted amount of the drug throughout the life of each inhaler.

Asthma is a chronic lung disease caused by inflammation of the small airways. The breathing tubes in the lungs become inflamed and swollen, creating shortness of breath, feelings of tightness in the chest and coughing. Asthma triggers are numerous but may include allergens such as mould, animal dander, and house dust mites; cold viruses and irritants such as cigarette smoke and air pollution. While the number of individuals with asthma continues to increase each year, the number of fatalities has decreased, due to better diagnoses and treatment. And now asthma sufferers can breathe a little easier knowing their medication can reach their air passages without damaging the environment.