Inhaler ban possible

WASHINGTON – Asthma sufferers may not be able to buy nonprescription inhalers much longer because the devices contain propellants that harm the ozone layer.

An advisory panel voted 11-7 Tuesday to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration remove the “essential use” status that Primatene Mist and other similar nonprescription inhalers require to be sold, spokeswoman Laura Alvey said. Final revocation of that status would mean a de facto ban on their sale.

The FDA usually follows the advice of its outside panels of experts, though a decision can take months.

The over-the-counter inhalers proposed to be banned contain the drug epinephrine along with chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which propel the medicine into the lungs of asthmatics.

CFCs are being phased out because they harm the Earth’s protective ozone layer.