Obama Takes Green Initiative, Snatches Inhalers Out of Asthmatics' Hands
The Obama administration may have kneed environmentalists in the nuts with its decision to delay a policy rehaul on air quality standards until 2013. But that doesn't mean that measures aren't being taken to protect what's left of the atmosphere. That's right, folks: The U.S. government is rolling up its sleeves and taking on the real enemy. No, not oil and coal processing plants, but rather the children who had the bad luck to grow up living near them, and face of lifetime of wheezing for doing so. Target: asthma inhalers!
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that by Dec. 31, all over-the-counter, aerosol asthma inhalers will be illegal because of their CFC content. Asthma patients will instead need to use prescription albuterol inhalers, which use ozone-friendly hydrofluoroalkane as their propellant, but which can also cost up to three times the price.
