Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Some asthma sufferers say CFC-less inhalers don’t work

Some believe they might even be harmful

McClatchy-Tribune (McClatchy-Tribune / The Spokesman-Review)
Deborah Shelton I Chicago Tribune

Months after a federal ban went into effect outlawing a propellant used in most rescue inhalers, some asthma sufferers insist that the replacement inhalers don’t work and might even be harmful.

Millions of asthma sufferers were forced to switch to a different quick-acting inhaler by Jan. 1, after an amendment to the Clean Air Act outlawed chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs – an ozone-depleting chemical that delivered medication deep into the lungs.

People with asthma and other breathing disorders now are prescribed more environmentally friendly, hydrofluoroalkane-propelled inhalers.

The devices are just as effective as CFC inhalers, according to many medical experts, including a spokesman for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

But differences in operation and sensation have led to confusion, experts say. The HFA inhalers deliver a softer mist, taste different and must be primed before use and cleaned more often.

The less forceful spray makes many users believe that the inhalers are not working, says Dr. Thomas Stern, a pulmonologist in Charlotte, N.C.

He says it will take time for some people to adjust their expectations, but most of his patients have made the transition.

“The medication is exactly the same, the effectiveness is the same,” adds Dr. Clifford Bassett, assistant clinical professor of medicine at Long Island College Hospital, State University of New York. “The only difference is that the propellant has some mild qualitative differences.”

Some users, however, are adamant that the inhalers don’t work. The National Campaign to Save CFC Asthma Inhalers has collected more than 4,500 signatures as part of its drive to bring the old CFC inhalers back.

Arthur Abramson, an asthma patient in San Francisco who runs the group’s Web site, SaveCFCinhalers.org, says patients are being forced to buy drugs that are less safe and less effective.

He says he developed permanent tinnitus in his left ear after using an HFA inhaler.

“What they tell you is that everything is the same, just the propellant is different, and that is a lie,” Abramson says.

“The fact of the matter is, it is not the active ingredient albuterol that is causing the problems. It is the inactive ingredients, such as ethanol, and also the unique impurities.”

The HFA propellant itself also appears to be causing problems for some people, he says.

Karen Riley, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, says the agency has received more than 500 complaints about HFA inhalers, many of them about the ethanol.

But she says one of the four FDA-approved HFA inhalers on the market, Ventolin, lacks the ingredient.

“There is an alternative available for patients who cannot tolerate or do not want ethanol in their albuterol inhaler,” Riley says.

Three albuterol HFA inhalers are available in the U.S.: Ventolin, Proventil and ProAir. Another inhaler, Xopenex, contains a medicine similar to albuterol.

Riley says each was approved based on research showing its safety and effectiveness.

All of the active and inactive ingredients are considered safe in the amounts found in the approved inhalers, she adds.

Sandra Fusco-Walker, director of patient advocacy at Allergy and Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics, based in Virginia, says many inhaler users have not been given instruction on how to properly use the devices. She worries about asthmatics having problems but not consulting their doctors.

“If you need albuterol more than two times a week or wake up during the night, you need other medications,” Fusco-Walker says. “That’s considered asthma out of control.”

Maureen Damitz of the Respiratory Health Association says some patients are doubling up on medications when they don’t have to.

Long Island’s Bassett, a spokesman for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, says talking about inhaler concerns gives patients and doctors a chance to go over prevention strategies, asthma triggers, back-to-school measures and instruction on use of medications.

Many studies show that inhalers are commonly misused, Bassett says.

“If the medication is not used correctly,” he says, “you’re going to have a problem.”

Critics of the inhalers say it’s not their technique that’s the problem, it’s the inhalers.

Like a number of other users, Jane Malloy, who lives in Streamwood, Ill., now gets inhalers from outside the U.S. over the Internet.

She’s not comfortable with the idea, but she doesn’t want to use HFA inhalers after coughing up blood and feeling a strange itchy feeling in her lungs after using one.

However, now that an international treaty on chlorofluorocarbons has gone into effect, even overseas sources of the older inhalers are drying up.

Malloy is becoming worried as she watches her supply run out.

“I don’t know what I am going to do,” she says. “I think I’m in a world of trouble.”