Health care's carbon footprint: Inhalers causing greenhouse emissions

Los Angeles (dpa) – Over the past decade, the use of inhalers has generated the same amount of emissions in the US as around half a million petrol or diesel cars, according to researchers who describe much of this everyday asthma medication as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. As governments around the world seek ways to drive down the emissions causing climate change, a team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is calling for health care systems to shift away from common inhalers with high emissions. "Inhalers add to the growing carbon footprint of the US health care system," said William Feldman, a pulmonologist and health services researcher at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Metered-dose inhalers are "the most harmful" as they contain propellants