Asthmatics: The latest “climate crisis” sinners
The virtue signalling insanity continues!
Two of my good friends have children who are asthmatic. In fact, one of them nearly lost her daughter, who had a dreadful asthmatic attack due to inhaling post-wildfire particulates. The child would have died without her inhaler.
However, green justice warriors have decided that the luxury of being able to breathe pales in comparison to saving the planet from minuscule amounts of greenhouse gases.
According to a new study published in BMJ Open, the familiar lightweight, pocket-sized aerosolized inhalers that make breathing easier for so many of the 235 million people worldwide who suffer from asthma may be choking the planet on a powerful greenhouse gas they release in the process.
The study, led by Dr. Alexander JK Wilkinson, a respiratory specialist with Britain’s National Health Service, focused on the 4.67 million people diagnosed with asthma in the United Kingdom, but it has implications for treatment worldwide, including in the U.S., where 22.6 million people (6.1 million of them children) are afflicted with the condition. The researcher compared the greenhouse gas emissions of aerosol pumps—known as metered dose inhalers (MDI)—with dry powder inhalers (DPI), which are shaped something like a hockey puck and are activated simply by inhaling. The two weren’t even close.
The supposed “experts” calculate that metered-dose inhalers account for nearly 4% of greenhouse gas emissions for the British National Health Services. Of course, the “experts” don’t mention water vapor is the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Perhaps asthmatics should give up steam treatments to ease their breathing?
The solution is to encourage patients to replace their “bad” metered-dose inhaler with a dry powder version. It’s almost as good as going vegan!
And at the individual level, each metered-dose inhaler replaced by a dry powder inhaler could save the equivalent of between 150kg and 400kg (63 stone) of carbon dioxide a year – similar to the carbon footprint reduction of cutting meat from your diet.
Lead researcher Dr Alex Wilkinson said: “The gases within these canisters are such powerful greenhouse gases that they can contribute significantly to an individual’s carbon footprint and if you are using one or two of these inhalers every month, then that can really add up to hundreds of kilos of carbon dioxide equivalent over the course of a year, which is similar to other actions that people are keen to take to reduce their carbon footprint such as going vegetarian.”
I will start taking this “carbon footprint” issue seriously when green justice celebrities stop taking private jets.
Dry Powder Inhalers (DPIs) have some disadvantages over Metered-Dose Inhalers (MDIs), such as putting out doses too fast for small children.
DPIs have some additional disadvantages as well; because of the wide range of DPI designs, there are challenges in developing information and instructions in support of the device and the functionality of the device might not last as long as an MDI. DPIs are also more susceptible to contamination because of their design and drug delivery method whereas MDIs are not; DPIs also contain lactose, though in small amounts. DPIs are generally more expensive to produce as well.
But price is no object when you can virtue signal . . . and it’s not your own child’s life on the line.
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Virtue signaling?
Let’s call it what their Communist masters always called it.
“Petite Bourgeoisie Hypocrisy!”
How close are we to Mexican drug lords realizing the immense profit potential for smuggling in useful, practical, proven CFC inhalers?
“The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much deeper into our lives than most people believe. It’s possible they are calling the shots at all levels of government.” – William Colby, former CIA Director, 1995
Not too long after making that statement Colby died in a boating accident.
Someone needs to compile a list of all the times and ways the “Leftists” have called for humans to die….from their rants about unemployed white men in Obama’s Greatest Depression Evah, to abortion, to…..
“post wildfire particulates.”
Hello. Yes, I speak doctor-lawyer-jive. Allow me to translate: forest fire smoke.
Back in the early nineties the propellant used in inhalers was banned – which meant the very effective and inexpensive asthma medication in those inhalers became unavaiable. And all of it replaced with expensive and less effective dodads and gogaws.
For people especially allergic to poison oak- inhaling those airborne oils in coastal wildfire smoke may trigger a nasty asthma reaction…among other things.
“Irony Alert! Left’s New Favorite Climate Change Activist Honored With Huge Spray Painted Mural
The newest addition to the San Francisco skyline is a work of art — a mural depicting Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, designed to draw attention to climate change.” (Made with 700 gallons of aerosol spray paint that requires the artist to wear an air respirator to avoid poisoning himself.)
https://www.weaselzippers.us/437121-irony-alert-lefts-new-favorite-climate-change-activist-honored-with-huge-spray-painted-mural/
Looks like an urban paintball park to me, just sayin.
Never done paint ball so I don’t know about that.
Exposing The Plan For A Global Dystopia
Global policy planners intend to deliver replacements for both dollar hegemony and fossil fuels. Plans may appear uncoordinated and in their early stages, but these issues are becoming increasingly linked.
A monetary reset incorporating state-sponsored cryptocurrencies will enable exchange controls to be introduced between nations by separating cross-border trade payments from domestic money circulation. The purpose will be to gain greater control over money and to direct its investment into green projects.
The OECD will build on current tax disclosures to make everyone’s income and capital known to governments and therefore readily taxable, money destined to kick-start economic growth. Under the guidance of supranational organisations, governments will redirect investment into green technology. The objective, particularly for Europeans, is to neutralise Russia’s increasing dominance of the global energy market by becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
But perhaps as Robert Burns put it, “the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley”. They are based on Keynesian fallacies, but cannot be ignored.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/exposing-plan-global-dystopia
Non-stop virtue-less signaling……..
(yeah like Krakatoa’s explosion was signaling……….)
4% of the NHS emissions. Of course, lets leave out that NHS emissions account for >0.000001% of the total emisions. Taco Tuesday likely accounts for a greater effect (if any).
With regard to the comment about private jets. Back in August Dale Earnhardt Jr’s personal Cessna 680 bounced off the runway while landing at a small general aviation airport in Tennessee and had a spectacular fire and crash at the end. All got out with a couple of bumps and bruises. But what is notable is that it was only an 80 mile flight! wheels-up wheels-down and NTBS has yet to release images from closed circuit camera in the area which caught the incident, nor have they released the cockpit data and voice recordings. As Yoda would say, “the hinky in this is strong.”
“the hinky in this is strong”
You have some theory of nefarious conduct?
The NTBS often doesn’t release much, if anything, until their investigation is complete. And their investigations always seem to drag out.
There were some pics. Seems clear enough, pilot error. The pilot overshot the runway and set the plane down way too late. It’s a short runway, just long enough for that plane in a normal landing.
The silliness of the article you cite is no excuse for misrepresenting it. Nowhere did it say or imply that “[…] the luxury of being able to breathe pales in comparison to saving the planet from minuscule amounts of greenhouse gases.”
To the contrary: the article emphasized the need for caution when switching asthma inhalers.
I’m a physician and asthma specialist; I do asthma research, and I have asthma myself.
Let me be careful and scientific here: the BBC writers of this piece are malicious idiots.
The inhaler propellants have been selected for several reasons — the medications have to be suspended properly in the propellant; the propellant has to come out of the inhaler device at the correct speed; the propellant can’t change or alter the medication or any other ingredient (e.g., stabilizers) in any way; and the propellant has to be stable for the useful life of the inhaler (up to 2 years). AND, if you use a combination inhaler, the propellant has to do the same with EACH and EVERY medication in the device.
Do you know how hard that is to do? The BBC sure doesn’t. The medicinal and process chemistry is daunting, and the propellants selected have required years of work. Changing them out would require each of the inhalers to undergo FDA certification again, and correctly so. One can’t take a chance in this regard.
But in short: the BBC writers are malicious idiots.
I wouldn’t say malicious, because I think they’re too brain-locked on The Narrative to be intentionally evil. I would treat them as a bunch of monkeys playing with matches in a fireworks factory, though.
So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.
George Orwell
I agree with “malicious.” I mean, how can you be so deliberately ignorant in the face of facts and persist in you hysteria of the day and not be malicious?
Isn’t it amazing how these ignorant fools can be so self assured in their proclamations of “expertise” in everything? Are they all sophomores?
Because “malicious” implies they hate the asthmatic people. They don’t. They just have weighted their priorities to somewhere around 100 for global warming/climate/whatever, and about 2 for ‘anybody who might complain about our glorious quest’ They have become blind to real suffering because they have stared at the fake for so long, and to actually *admit* such a mindless bias would crush their ego into powder. If you ask them about asthma medication issues caused by their proposed actions, they will instantly discount them as false attacks on their beloved premise.
In short, they no longer are able to critically think about anything related to their cause. They’re not malicious. They’re crazy. That’s worse.
“But in short: the BBC writers are malicious idiots.”
Yes. In all things, not just this.
And they are anti-American to the core.
Do we all ever notice that those with the largest mouths in this GHG/protect nature/warming and so on argument, are also those who drive the largest vehicles, have the largest houses, consume the most without reserve? Kind of like the Sierra Club on steroids. (I digress).
My main problem with the article, aside from the authors going after those with an illness, is this:
“And at the individual level, each metered-dose inhaler replaced by a dry powder inhaler could save the equivalent of between 150kg and 400kg (63 stone) of carbon dioxide a year – similar to the carbon footprint reduction of cutting meat from your diet.”
How can ~24 inhalers, each weighing less than 30 g, and each perhaps containing 3 g of ‘solvent’, for a total vapor of less than 0.1 kg a year, ‘produce’ the equivalent of 150 to 400 kg of CO2?? Accounting for a tiny amount of GHG for the common polymer used as a housing, the very small metal gas canister, and labels and printing, do these likely common techno-economically favorably manufactured solvent diluents/propellants in effect have such a poor performance? Are these solvents tens of thousands of times more aggressive than CO2 as a GHG? Did someone get their math wrong? (Disclaimer: I do not know how much solvent is in an inhaler nor what the composition is; it is a napkin thought/calculation).
Whenever we see these possibly outrageous claims, there is never an explanation to back it up! Where are the calculations? What are the ingredients and how do you arrive at 150 to 400 kg CO2 equivalent? What is the reference point, say a percentage of total GHG emissions, both natural and synthetic? Even per person?
To boot! This is the equivalent of cutting meat out of your diet.
Well being the meat eater I am, I passed the authors test since I started consuming Soylent Green (TM) sourced from the now more readily available dead asthmatics. This has provided me a double GHG credit affording me the opportunity to eat a few more sprouts a year and to pass gas without shame. Smug I am!
Azide999 is on to something. Death of an asthmatic removes the Carbon Dioxide they produce continuously as part of the Krebs Cycle or Citric Acid Cycle of their metabolism. Upon their death, consumption of their component molecules by bacteria, fungi and other organisms (including humans via cannibalism)also produce Carbon Dioxide.
The argument for vegetarianism presumes that less Carbon Dioxide producing animals would be raised by farmers, but that also presumes that other animal grazing populations such as wild deer or rabbits would not increase to take advantage of the available browse. Land currently used for pasture could also be converted to raise other crops, causing more water consumption via irrigation, soil erosion and Carbon Dioxide production by the machines used to raise these crops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle
DPIs are harder to get into the lungs during an acute attack.
100% true.
“dry powder inhalers (DPI), which are shaped something like a hockey puck and are activated simply by inhaling…”
Whoever wrote this has never had an asthma attack. There is no ‘simple’ in inhaling during an attack.
But aren’t asthmatics victims of global warmening, and thus entitled to spend some carbon as reparations? Or am I behind in the ever-changing gospel of this strange religion?
Sorry – I’m having trouble wrapping my head around “dry powder inhalers” … what with black lung in miners for breathing coal dust, lung cancer in asbestos installers, talc in bath powders causing respiratory problems and (allegedly) cancer … how can inhaling dry powder for asthma NOT have some negative effect on the lungs – at least insofar as buildup of the inert (?) carrier of the effective part of the medicine? I’d think an inhaled medicine would be a liquid to ensure complete absorption?
The answer is all about the nature of the powder,and the quantity of the powder.
Very safe and very useful. The amount of powder is very small, the particulate size lets them land in the breathing tubes (not air sacs) of the lung, and most importantly, the drugs are absorbed so that the powder is dissolved.
“Healthcare with Leftist Characteristics.” With apologies to Chairman Mao.
Correction – Deng Xiaoping.
I guess this particular problem isn’t one of those “think of the children” style virtue signalling. That was the original “shut up and bend over here it comes you hate filled pig” mantra of the left when it was needed.
What was once old therapy will become new again. Theophylline and albuterol tablets slated to become first line asthma treatment again?
There’s no depth of idiocy to which the media class won’t sink.
The more outlandish, offensive, ridiculous, deathly, the better!
Well I was asthmatic, mostly in summers, until I was given an inhaler at 27 yrs old & have never had a full attack since – now I doubt I’d really get one. I still inhale morning & evening to make sure & will keep that up – perhaps the World owes me as much for all the asthma it gave me before? Maybe, or not.. 🙂
This is complete drivel. Methane plays such a minor role in warming the alarmists’ don’t bother to include its effects in their climate models.
Although methane is a more efficient warming gas than CO2 or water vapor, there’s a common sense reason why more of it would not affect the climate – there’s no available sunlight for it to capture. Methane converts into heat (infrared radiation) sunlight from two or three very narrow bands of wavelength. However, those wavelengths of light are already being captured by the CO2 and water vapor (by way of their dominance by volume in the air) – there is nearly zero sunlight left available for capture and conversion (into heat) by methane! (This happens to be the same reason why more CO2 can’t significantly affect the climate – there’s already more CO2 in the atmosphere than necessary to capture the sunlight that it converts to infrared radiation! Two NASA scientists wrote a paper on this in the 1970s. They calculated that if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere were to increase eightfold, it would yield a warming of about 2C. The fixed amount of sunlight available for capture and conversion to heat is already saturating the earth’s greenhouse gases and their ability to heat the atmosphere.)
True believers in climate change would have no qualms about millions of human deaths in the service of their cult.
Stalin and Mao would be proud.
I bet you think I’m kidding. I wish.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g294197-d554528-Reviews-Bukhansan_National_Park-Seoul.html
North One Country Mountain. You can climb some fine November day and listen to the NORKs practicing to kill you.
Fair minded individuals may argue we are doing the same thing.
Fair enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=6utAomdF-iA&feature=emb_logo
“Escaping North Korea part 2- BBC documentary (English Subs)”
If I’m holding anyone hostage, tell someone. Please.
No, they really are trying to kill you.
It’s often hard to take raw boots and train them that someone wants to kill them.
My enemy trains every day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=R9HzJdniAGY&feature=emb_logo
So do I.
I believe this is an H6k Mavis.
Regardless, the thing about the lonely Pacific is that patrol bomber crews were put into the position of being air-to-air fighters. So every once in a while PB4Y Liberators were locked in mortal combat with Japanese flying boats.
That’s the thing about Wwii. It wasn’t just one war. it was a lot of individua; wars.
This American crew won their war. That day.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/af/29/abaf2977402eb4ad4d2adddc8686a7e0.jpg
Sorry. I shouldn’t have even tried.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawanishi_H8K