Source: International Business Times
Metered-dose inhalers, or 'puffers,' accounted for 98 percent of emissions due to the propellants used to deliver medication AFP The inhalers people depend on to breathe are also warming the planet, producing annual emissions equivalent to more than half a million cars in the United States alone, researchers said Monday in a major new study. Using a national drug database, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard analyzed global warming pollution from three types of inhalers used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) between 2014 and 2024. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that inhalers used by US patients with commercial insurance and the government-run programs Medicaid and Medicare generated 24.
