Inhaler review

One of the biggest areas we have identified for improvement is the type of inhalers we prescribe to our patients for chest problems such as asthma and COPD.  Some types of inhaler contain propellants which make a significant contribution towards greenhouse gases and our practice carbon footprint.  One type of inhaler has the same carbon dioxide equivalent as that produced driving a car from London to Sheffield.  When I looked at our prescribing over the last year, inhalers were responsible for almost 21 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. At the moment, only 27% of the inhalers we give to patients are 'green'.  In Europe, this figure is more like 50% and in Sweden, they are at 87%.  Most of the time, the 'green' inhalers are the same medicine, but delivered slightly differently, so there should not be much difference for patients.  If our practice could achieve the same use of 'green' inhalers as Sweden, we would see our CO2 equivalent drop to around 9 tonnes per year.

Our plan is to gradually phase in the 'green' inhalers.  We will most likely do this at your asthma or COPD check up.  This means we can show you how to use the 'green' inhalers and make sure that your chest condition remains well controlled.  Please do not stop any inhalers as any hospital treatment needed for a flare up will result in far more greenhouse gases than the inhaler!

Things you can do in the meantime to help reduce the impact of inhalers on the planet include stopping smoking and increasing your exercise (which will improve your lungs and reduce the need for inhalers), only ordering inhalers that you need, and bringing any used inhalers back to the practice for disposal (we can make sure the propellants are denatured and therefore reduce their impact on greenhouse gases). Making sure your inhaler technique is correct will make sure that you get the most out of your medicines and Asthma UK have some helpful videos on their website to support this.