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Obama Administration Set to Ban Asthma Inhalers Over Environmental Concerns
Weekly Standard ^ | September 23, 2011 | Mark Hemingway

Posted on 09/23/2011 9:28:10 PM PDT by neverdem

Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer:

Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the federal government's latest attempt to protect the Earth's atmosphere.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday patients who use the epinephrine inhalers to treat mild asthma will need to switch by Dec. 31 to other types that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, an aerosol substance once found in a variety of spray products.

The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.

The Atlantic's Megan McArdle, an asthma sufferer, noted a while back that when consumers are forced to use environmentally friendly products they are almost always worse:

Er, industry also knew how to make low-flow toilets, which is why every toilet in my recently renovated rental house clogs at least once a week.  They knew how to make more energy efficient dryers, which is why even on high, I have to run every load through the dryer in said house twice.  And they knew how to make inexpensive compact flourescent bulbs, which is why my head hurts from the glare emitting from my bedroom lamp.    They also knew how to make asthma inhalers without CFCs, which is why I am hoarding old albuterol inhalers that, unlike the new ones, a) significantly improve my breathing and b) do not make me gag.  Etc.

Well, tough cookies asthma sufferers! You should have written bigger checks to the Democratic party while you had the chance.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: asthma; asthmainhalers; epa; obama; regulations
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Minorities hardest hit!
1 posted on 09/23/2011 9:28:20 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Nuts


2 posted on 09/23/2011 9:30:49 PM PDT by DB
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To: neverdem

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2782829/posts

Already posted, and in the Breaking News thingy, fyi. Includes one of my typically-crabby comments. :)


3 posted on 09/23/2011 9:31:20 PM PDT by Darkwolf377 (undecided)
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To: neverdem

Asthmatics are a burden to the system and should be encouraged die sooner. That way, the rest of us will save on health care costs.

Ban those damned Breathalyzers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWOQA8S3i4g


4 posted on 09/23/2011 9:33:33 PM PDT by garjog
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To: neverdem
But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.

It's only money, peasants. Be thankful it isn't more.

5 posted on 09/23/2011 9:40:14 PM PDT by denydenydeny (The moment you step into a world of facts, you step into a world of limits. --Chesterton)
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To: garjog

I have no clue on how he is going to avoid having things thrown at him by parents of children who have asthma. I don’t know how he is going to end up avoidning being frogmarched out by the citizenry, much less at all the marines as some have suggested. There is no way that at all, he will get reelected. All it takes is one death by an asthmatic to end up wiht him getting impeached.


6 posted on 09/23/2011 9:45:57 PM PDT by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: neverdem

Fed Gov mandated that albuterol inhalers switch from r12 freon to H134a, the Good Freon, years ago. They could mandate that the epinephrine inhalers switch also.


7 posted on 09/23/2011 9:51:24 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: neverdem

Asthma disproportionately affects children, families with lower incomes and minorities.

http://www.epa.gov/epahome/sciencenb/asthma/PopulationDisparities.html

Democrats hare poor minorities.


8 posted on 09/23/2011 9:51:49 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Democrats are violent. Prisons are overflowing with democrats convicted of violent crimes.)
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To: neverdem

probably another payoff to a favored corporation.


9 posted on 09/23/2011 9:52:16 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: Niuhuru

The GOP will never be able to undo all of the crap he is doing if they ran the place for two decades.


10 posted on 09/23/2011 9:53:50 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: Niuhuru

“There is no way that at all, he will get reelected. “

I dunno, the MSM has been urging Romney to run for nine years now. They must know he’d lose, or that they can make him lose.

I think a Romney vs Obama race has a good chance of a re-elected Obama.

Especially if we get blasted with every lie Mitt has attempted, like writing a check for Planned Parenthood, being asked about it, lying, then having a picture show up along with corroboration from Planned Parenthood.


11 posted on 09/23/2011 9:56:03 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: neverdem

We will just throw a few dead ashmatics of the floor of the whitehouse, and maybe the msm will get it..


12 posted on 09/23/2011 10:01:17 PM PDT by richardtavor (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem)
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To: neverdem

Albuterol is prescription. So much more for the inhaler, plus the cost of a few doctor or clinic visits.


13 posted on 09/23/2011 10:04:00 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: neverdem

Every time Obama takes off in Air force One he spews more atmospheric crap then all the inhalers on earth.


14 posted on 09/23/2011 10:06:10 PM PDT by doc1019 (You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.)
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To: neverdem

How many have needlessly died thanks to eco-nazis?

Pray for America


15 posted on 09/23/2011 10:09:16 PM PDT by bray (Palin is hated by the establishment of both Parties. Winner!)
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To: GeronL
probably another payoff to a favored corporation.

BINGO!

16 posted on 09/23/2011 10:11:28 PM PDT by Aria ( "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.")
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To: garjog
Asthmatics are a burden to the system and should be encouraged die sooner. That way, the rest of us will save on health care costs.

This would be the trifecta for liberals! Less CFC's into the atmosphere, less healthcare costs because those pesky asthmatics would die sooner, and less CO2 emissions from breathing people. George Costanza would be proud!

17 posted on 09/23/2011 10:12:00 PM PDT by neodad
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To: GeronL
We're still correcting Jimmah Cahtah’s foul-ups.
18 posted on 09/23/2011 10:17:57 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: None

If not for primatene mist I wouldn’t have survived one particular night. Beauty of the stuff was that it was only a drugstore away...and very effective.


19 posted on 09/23/2011 10:18:26 PM PDT by RBIEL2
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To: richardtavor
We will just throw a few dead ashmatics of the floor of the whitehouse, and maybe the msm will get it..

they would get it a lot faster if the MSM got egged.

20 posted on 09/23/2011 10:31:15 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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