Comment on Common inhalers carry heavy climate cost, study finds
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that inhalers used by US patients with commercial insurance and the government-run programs Medicaid and Medicare generated 24.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the decade.
So a drop in the bucket compared to corporate pollution, eh?
My god, hasn’t anyone considered the damage being done by keeping people alive and healthy! /s
three types of inhalers used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) between 2014 and 2024.
Oh and a bonus, it’s tied to diseases whose numbers increase with increased pollution.
But nevermind, it’s all the poor schmucks who are trying to stay alive who are the problem. /s
Did you even read it?
But the vast majority of people could use dry powder or soft mist inhalers,” Feldman said, noting that countries such as Sweden and Japan use alternative inhalers without any loss in health outcomes.
Feldman emphasized that the goal of the research is not to blame patients but to highlight the need for policy and pricing reform.
How about actually RTFA first before you go off making such an ass of yourself next time? Nowhere did anyone blame the patients, except you.
It’s worth noting that the article suggests a lot of people are only on this type of inhaler due to insurer laziness.
I suggest read the original study instead of a paper’s interpretation of it. They suggest action, and that’s changing the suggested inhalers people use in most cases. It’s not “blame people for thing”, it’s “here’s a problem and how we can dramatically reduce it with some minor systemic changes”
All but 2 therapeutic classes (short-acting muscarinic antagonists and ICS-SABAs) had dry powder and/or soft mist inhalers available. If patients during the study period had received the inhalers with the lowest emissions intensity available at the time in each therapeutic class, total emissions would have decreased by 92%, from 24.9 million mtCO2e to 2.1 million mtCO2e (eTable 6 in Supplement 1).
[…]
This study identifies a high ceiling for potential climate-related gains from switching patients to therapeutically equivalent alternatives. Any such efforts to shift prescribing will likely depend on broadscale formulary changes—and the policies required to incentivize such changes—rather than just individual actions by patients and physicians, who may be limited by payer formularies when choosing particular inhalers
That sort of thinking kills positive change by distracting with bigger problems.
Yes it’s a small thing compared to XYZ, but it’s still worth doing.
lemmyng@piefed.ca 3 weeks ago
If you'd read the article (or even the excerpt that OP included), the author firmly places the blame on the American medical and insurance industry that is refusing to cover inhaler versions without greenhouse gas propellants.