The NHS is working hard to reduce its Carbon Footprint (1).
Gas propelled inhalers (metered dose inhalers or MDIs) use propellants which are potent greenhouse gases, 1000 – 3000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. MDIs account for almost 5% of the entire carbon footprint of the NHS.
Ventolin MDI inhalers (containing the medication salbutamol) have more than double the carbon footprint of other salbutamol MDIs, and more than twenty times the footprint of a Salbutamol Easyhaler (where the salbutamol is inhaled as a powder). To help the environment, we have switched your inhaler to a Salbutamol Easyhaler, which delivers the same amount of salbutamol with the lowest possible carbon footprint. The inhaler technique is slightly different from your current MDI inhaler, but the new inhaler will contain the same number of doses. Please see the link below to see how to use this new inhaler:
How to use an Easyhaler inhaler | Asthma UK.
Please always ensure that you take any used or unwanted inhalers back to your Community Pharmacy for appropriate disposal. Inhalers should not be put into household waste as this allows release of the remaining potent greenhouse gas propellants into the atmosphere.
Thank you for your support in reducing climate change. If you have any queries please leave a message for the Clinical Pharmacist, Ramila, at the Surgery on the above number.
Yours sincerely
Ramila Patel
Clinical Pharmacist
Cam & Uley Family Practice
1) “Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service”