FDA to complete phase-out of chlorofluorocarbon inhalers

FDA NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Oct. 23, 2013
Media Inquiries: Morgan Liscinsky, 301-796-0397, morgan.liscinsky@fda.hhs.gov
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA to complete phase-out of chlorofluorocarbon inhalers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will complete its phase-out of all inhaler
medical products containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by Dec. 31, 2013.
This effort is to comply with an international treaty to protect the ozone layer
by phasing out the worldwide production of numerous substances, including CFCs,
which contribute to ozone depletion.

While most inhaler products containing CFCs have already been phased
out by the FDA, two products currently remain on the market: Combivent
Inhalation Aerosol and Maxair Autohaler. However, these products will no
longer be available after the end of this year. People with asthma or chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who use these inhalers should talk
to their health care professional about a prescription for an alternative treatment.

Inhalers are critical products for those persons suffering from asthma or COPD.
In the United States, more than 25 million people suffer from asthma, a disease
that affects the airways in the lungs and can cause coughing, trouble breathing,
wheezing and tightness or pain in the chest. Additionally, 15 million people have
been diagnosed with COPD, a serious lung disease that worsens over time.
Symptoms can include chest tightness, chronic cough and excessive phlegm.

“CFCs were used as propellants to move the drug out of inhalers so that patients
can inhale the medicine,” said Badrul Chowdhury, M.D., director of the Division of
Pulmonary, Allergy and Rheumatology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation
and Research. “For more than two decades, the FDA and EPA have collaborated
to phase-out CFCs in inhalers – a process that included input from the public,
advisory committees, manufacturers, and stakeholders.”

Most inhalers that used CFCs have already been phased out by the FDA.
The inhaler that was most widely used—albuterol CFC inhaler—was phased
out in 2008 and replaced with inhalers that use propellants called hydrofluoroalkanes
(HFAs). There are many safe and effective inhalers available to treat asthma and
COPD symptoms. All of these inhalers require a prescription, which must come
from a licensed health care professional (a physician, physician’s assistant or
 nurse practitioner).

“The EPA and FDA's partnership has facilitated a safe, gradual transition
to CFC-free inhalers in the United States,” said Drusilla Hufford, director
of EPA’s Stratospheric Protection Division of the Office of Air and Radiation.
 “This action is an important contribution to the global effort to repair the
Earth’s protective ozone layer and save millions of lives through the
prevention of skin cancer.”

CFCs damage the ozone layer, a thin, outer layer in the stratosphere
that acts as earth's shield against the sun's radiation. The United States
and most other countries signed an agreement in 1987 called the Montreal
Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to phase out the
worldwide production and use of CFCs. In the United States, CFCs have
been removed from such products as hairsprays, deodorants and air conditioning.

For more information:

• Phase-Out of CFC Metered-Dose Inhalers
• Drug Treatments for Asthma and COPD that Do Not Use CFCs

Friday's Digital Health Finds: Text messages for asthmatic kids, 5 ways to use Pinterest in healthcare, and more!

Study: Text messages are effective intervention for asthmatic children [Healthcare Informatics]
According to the results of a study, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, sending a child with asthma a text message that prods them on their symptoms and help them better understand the condition can improve outcomes. “It appears that text messages acted as an implicit reminder for patients to take their medicine and by the end of the study, the kids were more in tune with their illness,” Rosa Arriaga, study leader and senior research scientist in the College of Computing’s School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, said in a statement.

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Why doctors should use their real name on Twitter [KevinMd.com]
What we say on Twitter as doctors, particularly with medically related topics, carries weight. By saying we are doctors gives our tweets a greater level of authenticity that is not commonly afforded to other users. Not only do we hold power with knowledge, we are respected for the judicious use of our knowledge which has been painstakingly acquired over many years and enhanced by a responsibility for life long learning. It is incumbent upon us to not abuse this privilege.

UC San Francisco opens Center for Digital Health Innovation  [UCSF]
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5 ways Pinterest can be used for patient education in healthcare [ParkerWhite]
As more and more people use the Internet to search about healthcare, Pinterest is a way to organize the information they find, also allowing for them to share content easily with others. The other potential benefit from Pinterest is to reach people when they’re in various Internet “mindsets.” It can be a way to reach the patient when they’re not necessarily concerned with a particular problem at the moment (i.e. searching for specific health information for an issue they have right now). Pinterest can provide a medium for reaching patients to remind people of the many aspects of their life in which health plays an important role.

Specialists see tools to treat pain in video games [NYT]
…TubeRunner is one of four of galaxy-themed video games created specifically for this complex, where pain specialists and game developers are piloting an approach to measuring pain. Dr. Julia Finkel hopes that using technical data from games and interactive activities to objectively identify and monitor pain can help determine how to evaluate the techniques used to treat it. Central to their effort to quantify pain, said Dr. Finkel, the chief of pain medicine here, is a squat, rectangular black box with three eyes peering up from below the screen. It was a Kinect, a motion sensor device that allows users to control games using gestures and spoken commands.