Patient Info

Dear Friends,

You may be aware of important changes in the availability of certain types of albuterol metered-dose inhalers (MDIs). Albuterol inhalers that use a propellant called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) cannot be manufactured in the United States after December 31, 2008. Although CFCs can't hurt you directly, and the CFC inhalers that patients used for many years were very safe, they can hurt the environment by causing damage to the earth's ozone layer.

Safe and effective alternatives to CFC inhalers, however, are available now. Hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) inhalers contain the same medicine as CFC inhalers, but they don't hurt the environment. You get the same safe medicine and the same benefit with HFA inhalers; your medicine is just delivered to your lungs a little differently.

You may already be using an HFA albuterol inhaler, or you may soon transition to using one. Whatever your experience, after reviewing the information on this Web site, you will be an HFA expert and know the important facts about the change from CFC inhalers to an HFA albuterol inhaler.

If you have any questions about your HFA albuterol inhaler or any of your medicines, please ask your healthcare provider. Together, you can take control of your asthma.

To your health!

Stephen P. Peters, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, North Carolina