WASHINGTON — Last warning: Asthma inhalers go “green” on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch.
The medicine inside these rescue inhalers — the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an attack — isn’t changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.
No more chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that damage Earth’s protective ozone layer. By year’s end, all albuterol inhalers must be powered by the more eco-friendly chemical HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane.
The new inhalers cost more, $30 to $60 compared to as little as $5 or $10 for the generic CFC inhalers.
Patients face a learning curve. HFA inhalers are used differently than the old-fashioned kind. The medicine feels and tastes different, sometimes alarming new users despite doctors’ assurances that it works just as well.
The Food and Drug Administration has long warned it was coming, and lung specialists have been easing patients into it for the past year.
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