Asthma inhalers to be banned by year's end for allegedly disrupting ozone layer

Thursday, October 06, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: asthma inhalers, CFCs, health news

(NaturalNews) Asthma sufferers who use inexpensive, over-the-counter Primatene Mist (PM) inhalers will no longer be able to obtain them beginning in 2012, thanks to a phase-out of the product initiated by the Obama administration. In accordance with the Montreal protocols adopted during the Bush administration, products that emit chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which include PM inhalers, are an alleged threat to the ozone layer, and are thus being withdrawn from use.

The decision is a curious one, though, as the Obama administration recently denied a new US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) smog rule that was allegedly designed to cut emissions and protect the ozone layer. Surely millions of vehicles produce more ozone-destroying pollution than those tiny inhalers do, right?

Nevertheless, the Obama administration is moving forward with the inhaler ban, which will send thousands of asthma patients using epinephrine inhalers to the pharmacist counter to purchase more-expensive, prescription-only albuterol inhalers, which can cost up to three times more and are not necessarily as effective.

We at NaturalNews do not necessarily endorse either type of inhaler, since the chemicals inside them can cause respiratory illness and other health problems in those that use them (https://www.naturalnews.com/020318.html). The simple fact of the matter is that a common medicine is being banned, not because it is harmful to human health, but because it is supposedly harmful to the environment.

The minute amount of CFCs emitted by epinephrine inhalers is nothing compared to the massive amount of other pollutants permitted to freely plague the environment -- toxic waste from pharmaceutical plants, fluoride chemicals dumped in water, and the millions of tons of aerosol chemicals sprayed in skies by aircraft to allegedly "prevent global warming" are just a few examples.

And yet the Obama administration is targeting a simple inhaler for extinction, which conveniently leaves several million asthma sufferers with no choice but to buy high-priced alternatives that require a trip to the doctor first in order to get a prescription.

The good news, though, is that there are ways to treat asthma naturally without the use of any inhaler. For some, simply drinking more water is enough to "cure" the disease, as respiratory inflammation is often caused by a lack of hydration (https://www.naturalnews.com/001965.html).

Certain foods can also trigger asthmatic symptoms, for which simple lifestyle and dietary changes can make all the difference (https://www.naturalnews.com/033531_asthma_cur...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-ad...