Montana kids can carry asthma inhalers

HELENA – A new law allows students to carry their asthma inhalers with them at school rather than run breathlessly to the school nurse for treatment, the state Health Department announced Tuesday.

Dr. Richard Buswell, a Helena physician who treats patients with allergies and asthma, said the new law is a good thing “because sometimes the (nurse’s) office is closed where the medicine has been held and the child didn’t have access to it.”

The 2005 Legislature passed a law, which took effect July 1, allowing students to carry and self-administer asthma medication while in school, at a school-sponsored activity or in transit to or from school or school-sponsored activities.

Buswell said some schools had previously allowed students to carry their rescue inhalers, while others did not.

“Now we have statewide consistency in the administration of these rescue inhalers,” Buswell said.