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Queensland University and Oxford University Medical researchers investigating why asthma sufferers were “under-represented” in severe Covid cases have completed a clinical trial of Budesonide asthma inhalers. According to researchers the randomised trial was stopped early, because the results were so remarkable, the researchers did not believe it ethical to deny treatment to placebo patients. Over-the-counter inhalers suppress severe COVID symptoms, trial finds By Stuart Layt February 10, 2021 — 11.18am … QUT associate professor Dan Nicolau, one of the lead researchers on the trial at the University of Oxford, said the results showed the method was extremely effective at preventing...

The pharmacist seemed sympathetic to my plight. Sadly, he explained that Primatene Mist (an over the counter inhaler for asthmatics) had been taken off the market. I was not surprised. Certainly many doctors have warned people of Primatene’s potential side effects. Oddly enough, medical concerns had nothing to do with its removal. Instead the pharmacist started talking about Global Warming. In denial, I jumped on the internet, hoping against hope that the pharmacist had somehow been mistaken. Instead I found an AP article from late 2011. “Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives...

Asthma inhalers, available over the counter from pharmacies will become prescription-only from 2012. The move comes as worries over ozone layer damage persist from continued use of chlourofluorocarbons to propel the medicine out of the inhaler. Primatene Mist, the only inhaler still available from pharmacies without prescription is an epinephrine inhaler that causes airways to relax, helping asthma patients during hard times or breathing difficulty. It is not a preventing medicine, but acutely used when airways constrict. CFC’s (chlorofluorocarbons) are concerning environmentalists, due to their dangerous depletion of ozone, the layer around the earth protecting us from the sun’s harmful...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, said in July that it had found the "smoking gun" that caused the space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1: a piece of foam that had peeled off the external fuel tank and struck the shuttle's wing 1 minute and 22 seconds after liftoff. But many experts looking at the tragedy that killed seven astronauts say there is a deeper cause. They say that the metaphorical smoking gun should be painted green. Because of demands that the agency help to front for...

Beginning January 1, 2009, millions of asthma sufferers will no longer legally be able to obtain the low-cost albuterol inhalers that enable them to breathe. The inhalers have been outlawed by FDA regulations under the UN Montreal Protocol on Ozone Deplation.  Few things are more terrifying than being smothered, yet millions of Americans who suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments experience this sensation on a regular basis. For many it is not just an unpleasant and debilitating experience, but a life-threatening one. For decades, these sufferers have received emergency relief from albuterol metered-dose inhalers (MDIs). These traditional MDIs, however,...

WASHINGTON — Last warning: Asthma inhalers go "green" on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch. The medicine inside these rescue inhalers — the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack — isn’t changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are. No more chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which damage Earth’s protective ozone layer. By year’s end, all albuterol inhalers must be powered by the more eco-friendly chemical HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane. The down side: The new inhalers cost more, $30 to $60 compared with as...

Eco-terrorists have struck again. Not in the dead of night, to be pursued by diligent agents of the FBI, but right out in the open, in a public meeting, under the auspices of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On January 24, one of those ubiquitous FDA panels of "outside experts" voted, by an 11 to seven margin, to recommend that FDA ban non-prescription, over-the-counter asthma inhalers, used routinely by millions of asthma-sufferers to control the symptoms of their debilitating condition. As frequently noted in the press, while such recommendations are not binding, they are most often adopted. The...

Using high doses of steroid asthma inhalers significantly increases the risk of developing cataracts, suggests a new UK study. People who used high doses of inhaled corticosteroids for a long time increased their chance of developing the eye disorder by nearly 70 per cent compared with those not on the drugs. Researchers compared the medical records of around 15,000 people with cataracts, with 15,000 people without cataracts from an electronic database run by British general practitioners. "People with cataracts were quite a lot more likely to be exposed to steroids - in particular high doses were quite strongly associated with...