Saving the Ozone Layer by Making it Harder to Breathe
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Author Topic: Saving the Ozone Layer by Making it Harder to Breathe  (Read 520 times)
🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸
shua
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« on: September 25, 2011, 07:12:34 PM »

Just imagine what could happen to the planet if we let people keep on taking their asthma medicine.

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Platypus
hughento
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« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2011, 07:22:38 PM »

You guys have to pay for asthma medication over there? How mediaeval.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2011, 08:51:22 PM »

The reason why the albuterol inhalers using HFA cost considerably more than epinephrine inhalers (or the now withdrawn albuterol inhalers using CFC has almost nothing to do with the price of the minor amount of the gas involved, but because the HFA inhaler designs are still under patent protection, which will expire sometime next year.  Once that happens the cost should come down considerably.  Some company could have submitted an epinephrine HFA inhaler to the FDA for approval, but albuterol is considered to be a considerably superior drug to epinephrine as it is more specific and has fewer side-effects, so even before the switch to non-CFC inhalers, albuterol had come to dominate the market.

It's a shame in one respect as I remember the Primatene Mist commercials that used to show up on TV, but this is not a serious problem.
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🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸
shua
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« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2011, 09:18:59 PM »

the law goes into effect before the patent protection expires.
plus I believe people should have their choice in medicines, particularly if it's something they're used to already and they do well with.
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Ban my account ffs!
snowguy716
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« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2011, 09:24:43 PM »

while I doubt these have much, if any, effect on the ozone layer, it should be noted that stratospheric ozone reached its low point in the mid 1990s and has been rising since, thanks in most part to the Montreal Protocol.

This has also had a big impact on winter weather in Europe and North America since stratospheric ozone (you know.. the ozone layer) builds up in the Arctic over the winter (due to lack of sunlight), falls into the troposphere, compresses, and heats both the stratosphere and upper troposphere.  This in turn slows the polar winds and allows blocking high pressure to form.  This high pressure squeezes the frigid Arctic air out of the Arctic and into places like London and D.C.

With all those CFC emissions in the 80s... we pretty much consigned Britain to a future of perpetually dreary, rainy, mild winters.  But alas, we've saved the day and have brought their economy to a crashing halt on several occasions during the past 3 winters.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2011, 11:03:17 PM »

the law goes into effect before the patent protection expires.
plus I believe people should have their choice in medicines, particularly if it's something they're used to already and they do well with.

A delay until the patent protection expires would only keep Primatene Mist on the market a year or two longer.  If there was enough of a market to be worth the cost of developing it, a non-CFC epinephrine inhaler would have been developed.  There isn't because albuterol is a superior drug for this use.
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🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸
shua
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« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2011, 11:21:15 PM »

the law goes into effect before the patent protection expires.
plus I believe people should have their choice in medicines, particularly if it's something they're used to already and they do well with.

A delay until the patent protection expires would only keep Primatene Mist on the market a year or two longer.  If there was enough of a market to be worth the cost of developing it, a non-CFC epinephrine inhaler would have been developed.  There isn't because albuterol is a superior drug for this use.
True - but that doesn't negate the problem in the meantime, as a delay isn't going to happen right now. I don't know if the Montreal Protocol establishes the date for this or if its US policy as part of a plan to reach a goal at a later date. 
I am support policies to reduce CFC's, and glad we've made some progress here as on other pollution issues. But this idea that a substance is supposed to be completely eliminated, that there is never an occasion that could justify it's use, is wrongheaded.
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Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook
The Obamanation
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2011, 04:43:34 PM »

Sounds like BRTD's new dismay name
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2011, 07:37:17 PM »

the law goes into effect before the patent protection expires.
plus I believe people should have their choice in medicines, particularly if it's something they're used to already and they do well with.

A delay until the patent protection expires would only keep Primatene Mist on the market a year or two longer.  If there was enough of a market to be worth the cost of developing it, a non-CFC epinephrine inhaler would have been developed.  There isn't because albuterol is a superior drug for this use.
True - but that doesn't negate the problem in the meantime, as a delay isn't going to happen right now. I don't know if the Montreal Protocol establishes the date for this or if its US policy as part of a plan to reach a goal at a later date. 
I am support policies to reduce CFC's, and glad we've made some progress here as on other pollution issues. But this idea that a substance is supposed to be completely eliminated, that there is never an occasion that could justify it's use, is wrongheaded.
The main reason there is still a market for Primatene Mist is that it is OTC, while albuterol is a prescription product.  Frankly, given the side effects of the two if only one were to be OTC it should be albuterol, but epinephrine benefits from being a grandfathered drug.  Getting epinephrine inhalers off the market is a good thing, and what is needed now is to get albuterol to OTC status or at least UTC status (i.e., you need to go to the pharmacy counter, but not pay extra for a doctor visit).

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