What kind of asthma medication does your child use? The Food and Drug administration is banning inhalers that use Primatene Mist. Parents may want to speak with their child’s doctor about other potential medications that their child can use instead.
Frequently, if the Food and Drug Administration has decided to remove a particular medication from the market, it is because the drug is causing side effects that are harmful to the people who use the drug. That isn’t the situation this time.
After December 31, 2011, Primatene Mist will no longer be sold. This is because the inhalers that use this medication have a drug delivery system that uses chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
CFCs are the compounds that have been shown to cause damage to the ozone layer. The United States has joined an international agreement called the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, which means that it must ban things that use CFCs.
So, if your child is currently using Primatene Mist, don’t worry. The drug is not being pulled because it is causing harmful side effects to the bodies of the people who use it. The CFCs are causing harm to the environment, and the inhalers use it to deliver the drug. In this case, the medication that is being banned is not the actual problem.
Around three million people in the United States use Primatene Mist each year. This means that there are a whole lot of adults, and children, with asthma who will soon need to find a different medication to use when then are having an asthma attack. If you, or your child, needs this drug, then things are about to get scary.
No one wants to have harm come to the ozone layer. However, it is a bit disconcerting that the FDA decided that Primatene Mist “didn’t serve an essential health need”, and that the panel voted 11-7 to ban the inhalers that administer doses of this medication to people who are experiencing an asthma attack.
If your child is using Primatene Mist in his or her asthma inhaler, you have a few options. You can speak with your child’s doctor about “stockpiling” some extra inhalers, so that your child will have access to the drug that he or she needs after the FDA bans the inhalers that use them. Or, you can talk to your doctor about other potential medications that your child can start using instead of Primatene Mist.
Image by Dottie Mae on Flickr