Your asthma puffer is probably contributing to climate change, but there’s a better alternative.

I breathe all the way out. There’s a quiet puff of gas from my inhaler, and I breathe all the way in. I hold my breath for a few seconds and the medicine is where it needs to be: in my lungs.

There is an environmentally friendly option. 

Many readers with asthma or other lung disease will recognise this ritual. But I suspect few will connect it with climate change. Until recently, neither did I.

In asthma, there is narrowing of the airways that carry air into and out of our lungs. The lining of the airways becomes swollen, muscles around the airways contract, and mucus is produced. All these changes make it hard to breathe out.

The most commonly used medicines in asthma are delivered by inhalation. Inhaling gets the medicines straight to the airways, speeding and maximising their local effects, and minimising side effects elsewhere compared to, say, swallowing tablets.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Senior Lecturer in General Practice at the University of Western Australia, Brett Montgomery - “Your asthma puffer is probably contributing to climate change, but there’s a better alternative.”