Paxson Barker has cut the use of her rescue inhaler in half since she started wearing a charcoal mask while using cleaning products to prevent her asthma symptoms.
But like most asthmatics, Barker has to have that inhaler on hand.
“What happens is your trachea closes, and you must get it open,” said the doctoral student at the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore.
At the end of the year, that rescue inhaler, which Barker and millions of asthma sufferers use, will change.
Inhalers propelled by chloroflurocarbon will no longer be available in the United States after Dec. 31, and patients are switching to hydrofluoroalkane-propelled inhalers.
Nearly 23 million adults and 6.8 million more under the age of 18 suffered from asthma in 2006, according to the American Lung Association.
Rescue inhalers offer quick relief to severe symptoms. CFCs, which have contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer, are gradually being phased out.
Although the type of inhaler will change, the medicine, albuterol, will remain the same, said Dr. Albert Polito, pulmonary specialist and director of the Lung Center at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.
Barker said she doesn’t know much about the change, but plans to meet with her doctor Dec. 1.
However, she said she wondered whether using an inhaler that didn’t propel the medication into her lungs would be as effective.
Indeed, the new inhalers produce less force, and the medicine may be a little warmer and taste different, said David DeBiasi, a registered nurse and certified asthma educator with the American Lung Association of the Atlantic Coast.
Despite the evidence that they work the same as traditional inhalers, some patients claim they don’t work, he said.
“Patients don’t seem to like them as much,” he said.
But Polito said a less forceful inhaler may be even more effective, as less medicine is shot to the back of the throat and mouth.
“People are used to that sensation of that spray, but that might not actually be a good thing,” he said.
One major concern is that the new inhalers also are more expensive. A generic CFC-propelled inhaler costs between $5 and $25, but the new ones, which are no longer generic, cost between $30 and $60, which could be a problem for patients without health insurance, DeBiasi said.
Some patients’ skepticism of the change presents an opportunity for doctors to educate and build a relationship with their patients, DeBiasi said.
“There has to be that trust factor,” he said.
“You can’t hand them a new inhaler and send them out the door.”
