Considering green inhalers

Belkhir and Elmeligi (2019) found that the pharmaceutical industry ‘is significantly more emission-intensive than the automotive industry', so it is unsurprising that Roy (2021) addressed pharmacists in her ‘call to action'. Noting that greenhouse gases (GHGs) are generated by pharmaceuticals throughout their lifecycle, Roy (2021) cites evidence that metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) account for 4% of the UK NHS's overall carbon footprint, with MDI's propellants being potent GHGs. According to UK data, ‘one patient's inhalers for 1 year (3 salbutamol inhalers at 28 kg CO₂ equivalent [CO₂ e] each and 12 controller inhalers at 19 kg CO₂ e each) are equivalent to driving a car 3200 km’ (Roy, 2021).

Many will welcome the recently announced healthCARe-Based envirONmental cost of treatment (CARBON) programme, which ‘aims to provide a broader understanding of the carbon footprint associated with respiratory care', with Wilkinson et al (2022) asserting that the CARBON programme will quantify the carbon footprint of medications and healthcare resource utilisation among 2.5 million patients with respiratory diseases from seven current studies in over 40 countries. However, Spooner et al (2022) warn that decreasing GHG emissions should not be at the expense of compromising patient outcomes.