Author: Luca Madriz-Zikic
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The Climate Cost of Inhalers and the Race to Replace HFA-134a
For people living with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inhaler is part of everyday life. Unfortunately it is also a persistent source of greenhouse gas. Pressurized metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs) deliver medication using hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) propellants, which replaced ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the 1990s (Janson et al. 2020). “HFA” is the pharmaceutical label but…