Thursday, June 12, 2008

Asthma Alert

I may be the last person with asthma in the U.S. to hear this, but when I was checking out the story about tomatoes and salmonella, I came across this:

FDA Advises Patients to Switch to HFA-Propelled Albuterol Inhalers Now
CFC-propelled inhalers no longer available as of Dec. 31, 2008

I have an Albuterol inhaler, but I use it only very rarely. I guess I'll have to find out about the news ones, as they seem to require cleaning and priming. Anyhow, I thought I'd pass this along in case you have anyone in your family with asthma.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

2 comments:

Kit said...

Wow - thanks for this Elizabeth! This is really interesting for me, not only becuase I'm asthmatic, but also professionally as a trainee pharmacist. Here in Australia, we phased out all CFC containing asthma inhalers several years ago, so it seems quite strange that you still have them in the States.
Kit.

Mimi said...

Yes, we still have them. Since it is a very old medication formulation, we can buy it here very inexpensively compared to other asthma meds. Mine only cost $4.00.

However, some people must have the new ones. I was talking to a friend yesterday who had already switched to the newer inhaler. I shall have to learn how to use one.

Thanks for your interesting comment from an Australian point of view.

Elizabeth