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. 2020 Jan;75(1):82-84.
doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2019-213744. Epub 2019 Nov 7.

Carbon footprint impact of the choice of inhalers for asthma and COPD

Christer Janson  1 , Richard Henderson  2 , Magnus Löfdahl  3 , Martin Hedberg  4 , Raj Sharma  5 , Alexander J K Wilkinson  6
Affiliations

Carbon footprint impact of the choice of inhalers for asthma and COPD

Christer Janson et al. Thorax. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

In the 1990s, metered dose inhalers (MDIs) containing chlorofluorocarbons were replaced with dry-powder inhalers (DPIs) and MDIs containing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). While HFCs are not ozone depleting, they are potent greenhouse gases. Annual carbon footprint (CO2e), per patient were 17 kg for Relvar-Ellipta/Ventolin-Accuhaler; and 439 kg for Seretide-Evohaler/Ventolin-Evohaler. In 2017, 70% of all inhalers sold in England were MDI, versus 13% in Sweden. Applying the Swedish DPI and MDI distribution to England would result in an annual reduction of 550 kt CO2e. The lower carbon footprint of DPIs should be considered alongside other factors when choosing inhalation devices.

Keywords: COPD pharmacology; asthma pharmacology; inhaler devices.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare the following: CJ reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and TEVA outside the submitted work; MH reports honoraria from GlaxoSmithKline for presenting scientific data on climate change; AJKW has nothing to disclose; RH and RS are GlaxoSmithKline employees and hold GlaxoSmithKline stocks/shares, ML is an employee of GlaxoSmithKline.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Annual carbon footprints (kg CO2e) for different combinations of Relvar, Seretide and Ventolin and annual footprint reduction of different actions*. ​*Wynes and Nicholas.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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